~Read and Respond: Walden~

In Thoreau's Walden, he tells the story of how he wanted to get away from all the material things in life that take away from the true human being. So he decides to live in the woods in a cabin to try to get as simplified a life as he can possible manage. He manages to do so for two years but then returns to his old life because he realizes that he has been subjected to so many "necessities" of the common world that it becomes hard for one to give those things up entirely.

What appealed to me in this story was how someone was wanting to actually "degrade" themselves, according to what people think is the normal life and what is a lower, poorer life. But it was because Thoreau wanted to live without all these strings attached. He was trying to achieve the simple life by doing what he did. And I'm sure all of you have thought about going out and trying to live off the land. We may think at first it would be really cool and that it wouldn't be that hard to do, but it's the exact opposite. We've lived with so many common necessities that if we had to give those up, most people wouldn't be able to. And the few that could, you probably wouldn't last very long out there.

In the end, you even see that Thoreau came back to his old life. He realized that not only is going and having to do everything for yourself a challenge, but the fact that you have to completely change your lifestyle so you live without commodities you use every day is very taxing. Not many people can stand up and say "I want to be a farmer," and then go off and be a farmer. We've lived with too many things that make our lives easier that giving them up would be next to impossible.

So I commend Thoreau on what he tried to do, because it's something that was not easy in the least. But he found something out for all of us when he tried to live on the land by himself. It proves that there is no simple life: no matter if you live with everything you can imagine, or next to nothing, you will still meet challenges in life that will require you to actually do something about it. If anything, we've learned that what we call "the simple life" is actually way harder than our "pampered" lifestyle.