Where I Lived, And What I Lived For By Henry David Thoreau

In Henry David Thoreau ‘s Walden Thoreau expresses his perception of what is real and genuine. To him reality is your own perception. If a person wants to, they can control how they look at life. In the chapter “Where I lived, and What I Lived For”, Thoreau tells us “When we are unhurried and wise, we perceive that only great and worthy things have any permanent and absolute existence, - that petty fears and petty pleasures are but the shadow of the reality.” What Thoreau means is that if we settle down and become more aware we can then see what is true and lasting. Once we focus on something it becomes more real but only if you open your eyes and try to pay attention. Those other emotions that are built on frivolous ideals are temporary. The feeling you when you have gained or lost luxuries are shallow and are not what is important in life. In order to see truth we have to be aware of what is really genuine in life. Life is not about the amount of material items you
consume. Thoreau is trying to tell us that life is about things that are long lasting. He warns us that “By closing the eyes and slumbering and consenting to be deceived by shows, men establish and confirm their daily life of routine and habit every where, which still is built on illusory foundations.” If you keep you eyes closed to the world you will be blind to the lies that are told to you. You will live your life going about your daily routines and feeding in to the falseness that you are truly living. He is telling us that because of our everyday routine lives we do not have time to observe and really think about our environment.
Knowing what is real and true and what is fake and false is extremely important for Thoreau. The purpose of the book is to have us learn what the true meaning of life is. He wants us to wake up from the daily routine life we are living because it is not genuine. In the chapter Economy he explains that “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.” What he is saying is that most people are living in a state of unhappiness but don’t let it show. They are giving this false appearance and giving up their lives to chase money.
People are working to gain money so that they can have the life they think that they want.
However the life that they want is a lie. This life is one that we have been told is the one we should want because it will make us happy. What Thoreau is trying to tell us is that the truth is, luxuries will not get you happiness. People suffer from being overworked and not having enough time to themselves. Thus they never truly live because they are chasing a lie. He is not very found of manufactures because they lead to excess consumption. When people work they are making things and thus driving the cycle for others to consume. He wishes for us to use a “Realometer” something that will get through the opinions, lies, and appearances so that people can know the truth. In knowing what is true you can appreciate the real “goods” of life and really start living. He is warning us that if we do not stop and question our surroundings and environment we will end up wondering how we got to where we are in
life.
In Philip K Dick’s novel one of the central themes is authenticity. To Dick what was real depended on the perception of the person. Throughout the novel, there were multiple perception of reality making it difficult for the reader to see which one was authentic. In one scene Rick, the main character, holds the empathy box, a box that brings you to an alternate reality and after examines his body. “Releasing the handles, he examined his arm, then made his way unsteadily to the bathroom of his apartment to wash the cut off. This was not the first wound he had received while in fusion with Mercer, and it probably would not be the last.” What occurred here was that in the simulation Rick was cut with a rock. Once he let go of the empathy box he saw that he was still cut. This shows that the world of Mercer, which is what is inside the empathy box, affected the physical world. This means that the different forms of reality were connected and intertwined together. The whole idea of Androids was that they did not have empathy. For them the boundary of what was the hunter and what was the victim was blurred, thus they were Androids. However, in this scene Dick shows that reality for humans is also blurred. So who is really real and who is not? The humans, like Rick, who were hunting these Androids down never really had empathetic feelings towards them. It is difficult for Rick and the reader to then figure out who was a real person and who was an Android. In Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? something being real holds significant value. In the beginning of the novel we see the main character Rick, show annoyance to a mechanical goat that he had. What he wanted was a real goat because having an animal that was genuine indicated higher social statues. In order to be real, the product, whatever it is, comes to being on its own. Towards the end, we see a change in the character, Rick, overall. In the end when he finds an electric toad he no longer cares that it is manufactured. Rick tells his wife “The electric things have their life too. Paltry as those lives are.” This means that Rick now believes that even manufactured things have their own life and value. His entire perception of what reality is has changed.
The character Rick has becomes more empathetic towards manufactured things and sees that the toad, in a unique way, is real. Empathy now allowed him to be more accepting and make more generous decisions in what was real. His inner world has completely opened up, but this is only his perception. What Rick going through is an experience that is completely individual. He is able to finally really open his eyes and focus on the toad itself. That is how he can now recognize that there is life to mechanical things.