Thoreau

Henry David Thoreau

What a cutie pie

Henry David Thoreau was a American transcendentalist of the same era as Ralph Waldo Emerson. Emerson was a teacher, mentor and friend, Thoreau supported and followed Emerson transcendentalist ideas. He wrote poetry and essays his whole life which than became famous, the were inspired by those of Emerson. His most famous work included writings like "Walden" and "Civil Disobedience". Emerson believed that society blocks people from being individuals. He stated, "Society is a joint-stock company, in which the members agree, for the better securing of his bread to each shareholder, to surrender the liberty and culture of the eater. The virtue in most request is conformity."(Emerson) Emerson always preached about abandoning society and creating thoughts and beliefs for yourself alone in nature/solitude.  Thoreau was so inspired by Emerson he brought Thoreau's ideas to a new level. He inspired to a simple life, in 1845, Thoreau built himself a small cabin next to the Walden Pond. Packed up his necessities and moved into his cabin. On his vogue to find true solitude and transcendentalism, is when Thoreau wrote his more defining pieces of writing. "I went into the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach ,and not, when I come to die, discover that I had not lived." (Thoreau)