The True Theme Behind Henry David Thoreau's Walden

Page 263 – First Full Paragraph

Though many may think otherwise, Henry David Thoreau exemplifies the overall theme of Walden as he states “if one advances confidently in the nature of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours” (263). Within this paragraph, Thoreau uses his ethos, diction, and an incredible metaphor to put light on the true thesis of his novel.

In this paragraph, Thoreau indirectly recognizes and inevitably admits that the true, most successful lives are not those that endeavor to live in the woods but rather those who endeavor to live the way in which they want to be. Life, then, is valued in the eyes of its beholder. Later, he realizes that if one lives life the way he or she wishes to live it happiness, is inevitable. If you live the life you have always wanted then “solitude will not be solitude, nor poverty poverty, nor weakness weakness.”

Throughout Walden, Thoreau explains his two years, two months, and two day experience in what many today would call solitude. Living out in the woods near Walden Pond in Massachusetts, he thoroughly explains the benefactors of nature without civilization by his discovery of enlightenment, himself, a sense of purpose so called the world. Here he calls it his “experiment” where he “put some things behind” and lived “with the license of a higher order of beings.” In it of itself, this is Thoreau’s story; it is the same story where he gave up society, a home, humanity and countless other relatives of civilization in order to acquire a new outlook on the world, one that let him look past all the fog that lies obstacles in life and, as a result, place himself upon the brightest thinkers humanity has ever seen.

After recognizing his ethos, the reader comes across a use of diction not very common throughout Walden, one that is extremely simple and direct. Thoreau’s word choice is here quite simple, with the most troublesome words possibly being: liberal, proportion, and solitude (Yes, ironically the most troublesome words are hardly at all troublesome). Through his use of simplistic sentence structure and short, sweet sentences, Thoreau established a sort of rhythm that made his paragraph all the more striking. His words and their use hit home and develop a sense of awe.

The last crucial piece of his paragraph lies as what I’d like to call a hanging metaphor, or a metaphor that is not explained but rather sitting there to be, or not be, picked up by the reader: “If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them” (263). In other words, no aspiration or dream can be too big; all that remains after they are dreamt is the hard work and life required to fulfill that individual’s desires.