2. WHERE I LIVED
Thoreau recalls several places he considered living
before deciding on his home in the woods near
Walden Pond
He never actually purchased a home, but came
close when he bought Hollowell place (owners wife
changed her mind and Thoreau walked away empty
handed)
“ I found that I had been a rich man without any
damage to my poverty” (Thoreau 68).
Thoreau became rich by means of life experience
3. WHERE I LIVED CONTINUED…
After moving into his home in the woods, Thoreau
describes the nature that surrounds him
“ Such was not my abode, for I found myself
suddenly neighbor to the birds; not by having
imprisoned one, but having caged myself near
them” (Thoreau 70).
Living in the woods has brought him both closer to
nature and his spiritual side as well as farther away
from society and its harsh standards of living
4. WHAT I LIVED FOR
Thoreau’s critique of
Evidence in text
society
People are too easily tied “ As long as possible, live
down in their daily lives free and uncommitted”
(Thoreau 69).
We need to take advantage “ That man who does not
of every day we are given believe that each day
contains an earlier, more
sacred, and auroral hour
than he has yet profaned,
has despaired life, and is
pursuing a descending and
darkening way” (Thoreau
73).
5. WHAT I LIVED FOR CONTINUED…
Thoreau’s critique of
Evidence in text
society
People are alive, but don’t “ To be awake is to be
truly live their lives and think alive. I have never yet met a
deeply man who was quite awake”
(Thoreau 74).
People worry too much and “ Simplicity, simplicity,
don’t have true focus on any simplicity! I say, let your
one thing affairs be as two or three,
and not a hundred or a
thousand” (Thoreau 75).
6. WHAT I LIVED FOR CONTINUED…
Thoreau’s critique of
Evidence in text
society
Society is full of people “ Men say that a stitch in
doing meaningless busy time saves nine, and so they
take a thousand stitches to-
work
day to save nine tomorrow.
As for work, we haven’t any
of consequence” (Thoreau
76).
Life should be lived with a “ Let us spend one day as
purpose and not be effected deliberately as Nature, and
by insignificant societal not be thrown off the track by
problems every nutshell and mosquito’s
wing that falls on the rails”(
Thoreau 79).
7. “ I WENT TO THE WOODS BECAUSE I
WISHED TO LIVE DELIBERATELY, TO
FRONT ONLY THE ESSENTIAL FACTS OF
LIFE, AND SEE IF I COULD NOT LEARN
WHAT I HAD TO TEACH, AND NOT, WHEN I
CAME TO DIE, DISCOVER THAT I HAD NOT
LIVED” (THOREAU 74).
Thoreau moved into the woods to escape and unplug
from society. This way, he could become one with
nature, have his thoughts to himself, and discover the
purpose of life.
