henry david thoreau
“Simplify, simplify,” Henry David Thoreau has been known to have said. He was a leader of the transcendentalist movement in the United States, and he embodied mindsets of simplifying and defying society. He advocated for getting rid of excess waste in order find the true meaning of life. “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately,” Thoreau states in Walden. Thoreau lived for two years alone in the wilderness when he wrote his most influential work, Walden. Thoreau wanted himself and all others to live without the excesses of life, because it held people back from truly living the meaningful life that they had the potential to live. “Most of the luxuries and many of the so-called comforts of life are not only not indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind,” Thoreau said. People had gotten too absorbed in worrying about money and their possessions, and Thoreau, along with other leaders of the transcendentalist movement, advocated for getting rid of this excess of waste because it was the aspect that held people back from experiencing the true, meaningful life that they were meant to live. Henry David Thoreau truly represented the American Dream, because he found peace and happiness once he had gotten rid of the excess in his life and simplified.
The movement of transcendentalism largely embodied the modern American Dream, and therefore Henry David Thoreau also represents the dream as he was a prominent figure in the transcendentalist movement. Henry David Thoreau advocated for simplification in life and to be able to disregard material possessions in life so that one could experience the true meaning and spirituality of the world. He lived for years secluded in the wilderness as to immerse himself in the world and to experience the beauty of how it functions naturally, and those experiences opened up his eyes to what really mattered in life. He often denounced the importance of the typical things that are cherished in life, such as wealth, and simplified in order to put the things that legitimately mattered to him, like the beauty of nature and relationships with others, on a pedestal. His mindset towards individuality and the importance of realizing the greatness that the world naturally offers was what made it so that Henry David Thoreau represented the modern American Dream.
Henry David Thoreau was part of a larger movement, that of the transcendentalists, and shared the same mindset with the rest of the authors and poets within the group, including people such as renowned poet Emily Dickinson.
The movement of transcendentalism largely embodied the modern American Dream, and therefore Henry David Thoreau also represents the dream as he was a prominent figure in the transcendentalist movement. Henry David Thoreau advocated for simplification in life and to be able to disregard material possessions in life so that one could experience the true meaning and spirituality of the world. He lived for years secluded in the wilderness as to immerse himself in the world and to experience the beauty of how it functions naturally, and those experiences opened up his eyes to what really mattered in life. He often denounced the importance of the typical things that are cherished in life, such as wealth, and simplified in order to put the things that legitimately mattered to him, like the beauty of nature and relationships with others, on a pedestal. His mindset towards individuality and the importance of realizing the greatness that the world naturally offers was what made it so that Henry David Thoreau represented the modern American Dream.
Henry David Thoreau was part of a larger movement, that of the transcendentalists, and shared the same mindset with the rest of the authors and poets within the group, including people such as renowned poet Emily Dickinson.