Thoreau seems to place emphasis on the individual and his or her ability to sort life out without the "limiting" advice of elders. Each person is different and, therefore, the life of each person will be different with unique failures and successes. Life, to Thoreau, is an experiment and to live in fear of this uncertainty and change is to not quite live at all. He mourns that the individual is entrapped in his work, becoming little more than a machine. " The finest qualities of our nature, like the blooms on fruits, can be preserved only by the most delicate handling. Yet we do not treat ourselves nor one another thus tenderly" (p.846).
Why does this occur? It seems that Thoreau makes a connection between the nearly feverish life of trying to accumulate material goods in life and the degrading of human life itself. People seek out material riches when the real wealth is to be found in contemplation and a simple lifestyle. People desperately try to keep up with the latest fashions, although everyone realizes fashions fade quickly and has certainly laughed at something that was once highly stylish (Think yearbooks from the 1980s and early 90s). In reference to this desire for the latest style, Thoreau refers to people as a "herd", diligently following the "luxiourious and dissipated" (p. 863). This life of chasing material wealth makes humans no better than cows, an idea very similar to Aristotle who considered a life of pleasure-seeking to be the lowest form of life: the life of cattle. This plays out in housing as well. Houses are no longer for shelter, but for fashion and are continually being made bigger and more stylish, chaining their residents to years of debt and slavery to their own work; the house owns the person instead of the other way around.
To Thoreau, this cuts humans off from true humanity; human spirit is stifled and enslaved. Freedom is found in a simple life connected with nature. He seems to be calling people back to a more natural, almost organic way of living and hints that this is the life of the philosopher. Clothing should be simple, durable, and practical, fulfilling its actual purpose of keeping the body warm or protected. It should also be limited so that, if one had to flee with only the clothes on his or her back, one would not need be concerned about the excess of things left behind. Housing should do the same; it does not need to be extravagant. As far as food goes, the best can be plucked off trees or dug up from the ground. Through this, Thoreau suggests, man will be free.
I really enjoyed this post. The part where you talked about wanting to keep up with the latest trends really stuck out at me. I can't even count how many times I have purchased something because it is the "new thing" and only a couple months later no longer wear/use it because it is no longer the trend. I am almost embarrassed that I do this, but I take comfort in the fact that I know almost every single other person does the same. :)
ReplyDeleteThis reading really made me consider what is important in life and what isn't. I have found that the material things are the lest important and experiences and people are the most important.