Henry David Therou

Henry David Thoreau, an American Transcendentalist and philosopher, is the ideal person who I consider significant to hold a conversation with. I consider him significant because he was an incredible author that was moved by the joyous, wild, and dazzling beauty in the world. He was known for creating powerful pieces of literature from unnoticed topics such as, Walden, an essay he wrote about his experiences at Walden Pond. With Walden in mind, I would ask Thoreau: Should man take a road to experience nature’s beauty as he did. What are his thought on how people confront their individual unity with nature, despite the overuse of technology, as he did with his experience at Walden Pond.
Thoreau was able to understand nature’s ways through patient, frequent, careful, observations of his surroundings. He wants people to live life with simplicity, and he found his simplicity at Walden Pond. Thoreau suggests that when man encounters his opportunity, then he must embrace it in order to love and live life.
Society has evolved since Thoreau’s time, with ability to use technology at its full potential. With technology teenagers can witness nature’s remarkable treasures throughout virtual tours; however, can the analysis of an image be compared with Thoreau’s experience at Walden Pond? Currently, people browse the internet to seek answers. Thoreau sought his answers throughout the experience at the pond. For example, from Walden he states, “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 it had to, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.” He states that he wanted to live his life, rather than find out too late that it had, in fact, lived him. Can society relate in any way with Thoreau by sitting, staring at countless amounts of digital images that pertain to nature? No, if one is on vacation at Yosemite National Park and they decide to tweet their location, then are they embracing nature? Are they experiencing the true beauty of Mother Nature? Thoreau states, “Let us spend one day as deliberately as Nature, and not be thrown off the track by every simple nutshell and mosquito’s wing that falls on the rails.” This signifies that man should embrace and bond with nature. Society has progressed much with the use of technology along with multiple ways to interact with unbelievable ideas before Thoreau’s time. Unfortunately, when something is gained, something is lost and so society has forgotten the first hand interaction with nature because people are concerned with the technological aspects while they forget the essentials of nature.
The wise American Transcendentalist, Henry David Thoreau, felt the need to confirm his unity with nature. I agree with Thoreau that society needs to withdraw from social distractions, obligations and experience the vitality and tranquility of nature. That’s the conversation I would have with Henry David Thoreau.