The Significance of Walden Pond from the Perspective of Transcendentalism

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This essay aims to analyze the significance of Walden Pond from the perspective of transcendentalism. Walden Pond will be analyzed as a place for the simplified life, the spiritual discovery, and the self-reliance in sequence.

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As one of the leading transcendentalists in American history, Henry David Thoreau has made a great contribution to improve people’s perception toward lives especially with the world-famous book Walden, or life in the woods. Written in a clear and direct language, Walden gives the image of the essence of life which can be found in the harmony with the nature. Although American transcendentalism was greatly influenced by European philosophy in the first place, it started to form its own characteristics combining Puritan philosophy with Emerson’s. Transcendentalism began as a religious movement, but its doctrine later became applied in the field of philosophy, sociology, and literature in the nineteenth century as well. In literature, transcendental writers put a great emphasis on the spiritual essence of the individual along with the self-reliance. In Thoreau’s Warden, Warden Pond was the right place where Thoreau could find the life’s real meaning for himself.



Lastly, as transcendentalists have emphasized, the concept of self-reliance can be understood as one of the ultimate goals that Thoreau has pursued in Walden Pond. Walden Pond encourages Thoreau to work on believing in his own ability and soul, so it also can be seen as the root of self-reliance in a sense. Like mentioned above, Thoreau tries to apply transcendental principle mainly to both economic and spiritual matters. In this sense, self-reliance can be the most significant factor to put all of his principles into practice. According to Thoreau, self-reliance is necessary not only for economic dependence but for the spiritual reliance between individuals and the natural world to exist each other in a harmonious way.
Many of his readers come to appreciate the charm and purity of Walden Pond after going through Thoreau`s two-year of life in the woods. After a while, they may feel that this feeling is lingering in

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