Walden By Henry Thoreau Analysis Essay Research — страница 2

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truly to find our real selves and world. ?Though the view from my door was still more contracted, I did not feel crowded or confined in the least. There was pasture enough for my imagination? (Thoreau 392). This is another statement which Thoreau uses the perspective of the ground and foundation to explain his point of view. I have this mental picture of Thoreau sitting in his doorway of the small cabin facing Walden Pond, making his fascinating inquiries and writing steadily as they come to him. This cabin was supposedly small by the measurements Thoreau gives earlier on, and so someone, like me, might take it that such a confined space may take away from the imagination rather than ignite it. But as Thoreau points out, sitting in his doorway, staring out at all of the

inhabitants and land, that he has no feelings of imaginative solitude since there was enough pasture (land) ?for my imagination?. This is a very important point even though it only consists of one short sentence. Thoreau is reminding us that our imagination lies within us and that no matter what circumstances we are in, it is there and always accessible. So does this mean that our imagination is the lost treasure? ?I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it

were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion? (Thoreau 394-5). This is one of the most famous passages from Walden. These lines have been read by millions of people since they were published and have shaped many lives into personal happiness. This is another ?burrowing? perspective but this time the burrowing is done inside of our own lives with the imagery of using our own bodies. Thoreau gives us his thesis statement of why he moved to Walden and what he hoped to find. ?Cutting? our images and lives down to the core, reaching the depths of one?s soul, starting over again with just the essentials of the mind is how he will find this lost treasure that so many of us have lost. These passages remind me of a warrior?s speech

before going to battle (like a Spartan!) in the epic tales, or like the quests for the Holy Grail, stating that if he does not find the meaning of life so obviously then he will continue his search relentlessly making this his human goal. In my opinion, this man really lived with wonderful awareness, taking every hour of being as a gift and savoring everything that life, not society, had to offer. Thoreau saw with transparent eyes into the lowest depths of world and then up to the highest zeniths of creation to find what most people never will. Thoreau, H.D. A Week On The Concord and Merrimack Rivers, Walden, The Maine Woods, Cape Cod. Lib. Of America. New York, 1985.