Thoughts on Thoreau

I really really liked Thoreau's style. I thoroughly enjoyed reading all that he had to say. I liked how he would take the normal, everyday occurrences of life and revert them in order to open our minds to the viewpoint of the world of an “awakened person.” Thoreau definitely has a point. We are all so caught up in getting through life as fast as possible, either looking to the future or regretting the past, at a certain point we fail to live it. I have been struggling a lot with this lately in my own life. I am a Biology and English major on the Pre-Med track, and I have very little time to really think about life in general. I am so caught up with getting through the next week, month, semester, that I don’t ever slow down to enjoy my college experience. If I am not studying I am either eating or sleeping. Just going through the motions, I haven’t taken the time to stop and “smell the roses” as it were. It’s interesting how Thoreau talks about the freeness of children and that they are the ones truly living. They get lost in their own curiosity and want to discover nature and the world by going out and exploring it. I miss that. I love that Thoreau speaks through irony. He takes a common statement and flips it around in a way that I was too lazy, distracted, or “asleep” to discover on my own: “I went to the wood because I wished to live deliberately” (892). In general, if someone goes to the wood, I would immediately think he/she wished to live in a life of solitude and relaxation. Thoreau takes a general belief and totally rearranges it, so I don’t know what to think anymore. He argues that by living far enough away from the hustle and bustle of village life, a person has the freedom to live a true life awakened. Someone surrounded by nature can learn to be one with nature with a little help from imagination. Imagination is the key to living; it is the factor that distinguishes children from adults. Requirements, expectations, obligations, strip a person of their ability to live. I love the fact that Thoreau doesn’t quote the bible, but rather alludes to Greek myths as well as Hinduism to make his points. By doing this, he is able to stand out from other authors and really focus not on the morality behind religion but rather on the different philosophies that help to explain the mysteries of life. Thoreau got me thinking. Hopefully one of these days I’ll eventually wake up.