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Walden Is An Important Book in Early American Writing and Is Recommended To Read in Whole

This document discusses the importance of including passages from Henry David Thoreau's Walden in an Early American Literature course. It provides context on Thoreau and Walden, including that it was written after he spent two years living in a small house he built at Walden Pond. The document summarizes two passages from Walden that are still relevant today - one on getting stuck in routines and the need for growth, and another on the importance of pursuing dreams and being open to change. It argues these passages should be covered due to Walden's status as Thoreau's best work and its influence on thinkers like Gandhi and MLK.

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Ryan Nelson
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55 views4 pages

Walden Is An Important Book in Early American Writing and Is Recommended To Read in Whole

This document discusses the importance of including passages from Henry David Thoreau's Walden in an Early American Literature course. It provides context on Thoreau and Walden, including that it was written after he spent two years living in a small house he built at Walden Pond. The document summarizes two passages from Walden that are still relevant today - one on getting stuck in routines and the need for growth, and another on the importance of pursuing dreams and being open to change. It argues these passages should be covered due to Walden's status as Thoreau's best work and its influence on thinkers like Gandhi and MLK.

Uploaded by

Ryan Nelson
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Ryan Nelson

Dr. Adams

English 231

July 15, 2019

The Significance of Walden

The epigraph in Walden ends with, “if only to wake my neighbors up.” (Walden 1). A strong

statement indicating Henry David Thoreau’s purpose of encouraging people to see the beauty in the

world and their lives. Thoreau is a well-known transcendentalist writer from the mid-1800s. Mentored

and inspired by Ralph Waldo Emerson, much of his writing portrays his empirical thinking and belief of

the importance of spiritual matters over the physical world. His abolitionist views expressed through his

political writings made significant impacts on the lives of revolutionary thinkers Mahatma Gandhi and

Martin Luther King Jr. Thoreau’s most famous book Walden was written after spending two years living

in a small house that he built on Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts. Resident scholar of the

Thoreau Institute, Bradley P. Dean, stated that is Thoreau’s, “best book and an unequaled masterpiece.”

(Kranish). Because of the significance that Thoreau had on the world and with it being, arguably, his best

work Walden should be a covered topic of discussion in the Early American Literature class.

Walden is an important book in early American writing and is recommended to read in whole,

but with the large number of texts to cover in a short amount of time, it can be narrowed down. There

are two important passages that still hold value in today’s modern society. The first being,

I left the woods for as good a reason as I went there. Perhaps it seemed to me that I had several

more lives to live, and could not spare any more time for that one. It is remarkable how easily

and insensibly we fall into a particular route, and make a beaten track for ourselves… The

surface of the earth is soft and impressible by the feet of men; and so with the paths which the
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mind travels. How worn and dusty, then, must be the highways of the world, how deep the ruts

of tradition and conformity! (Walden 213).

In this passage, Thoreau explains that he will be leaving Walden Pond. He talks about how his purpose

has been fulfilled there and it is time to move on to another challenge. He also mentions how he, like

others, can get stuck in a routine that becomes comfortable, which holds people back from growing and

experiences. All of this is important in the modern world because it is all too common for people to get

into a comfortable routine and not push themselves to grow. The physical path that Thoreau speaks of

can be seen as the customary drive to work, the weekly trip to the grocery store, or the hours spent in

front of the television. In this world, everyone must be a modern Thoreau and recognize when the path

they are on must be changed so that mental growth can occur.

The second passage from Walden that should be a covered topic in the Early American

Literature course is,

I learned this, at least, by my experiment; that if one advances confidently in the direction of his

dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success

unexpected in common hours. He will put some things behind, will pass an invisible boundary;

new, universal, and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves around and within him;

or the old laws be expanded, and interpreted in his favor in a more liberal sense, and he will live

with the license of a higher order of beings. (Walden 214).

Thoreau explains here the importance of working towards goals and being open to change. He states

that by doing this, one will be with the higher beings. In the current day this is just as important as it

always has been. Working towards goals and being able to evolve one’s mindset are what make society

grow and advance.

With the importance of setting and achieving goals, mental, and moral growth, these two

passages that were written in the mid-1800’s by Thoreau are still significant in today’s modern world.
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Thoreau influenced the lives of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. and will continue to inspire

others to work towards a better world. Because Walden is considered Thoreau’s masterpiece, it should

be covered, at least in part, in the Early American Literature class.


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Works Cited

Thoreau, Henry David, and Thomas Owen. Walden and Civil Disobedience: Authoritative Texts,

Background. W.W. Norton & Co., 1966.

Kranish, Michael. "Rethinking Thoreau His Life Has Been Misunderstood, His Words Misappropriated.”

Boston Globe, Jul 15, 2001. ProQuest,

http://ezproxy.cpcc.edu/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/405410523?accountid=1000

8.

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