Walden Excerpts Part 1

At first I wasn't sure that I would enjoy these excerpts from Walden, but after I finished reading I realized that I actually enjoyed it. I liked the way that Thoreau writes. He spends a lot of time in his writing describing the things that he observed. He tries to engage all of the readers senses when he writes so that they are able to see the big picture. He does a great job in Sounds with describing the nature around him, what he can hear and see. 

Map of Walden Pond

I also enjoyed reading Thoreau's portrayal of the other people in the village. He makes it sound as if the only things that they care about are gossip and the news. The way he talks about the villagers makes the reader think he enjoys going to town almost as a sport, to watch and listen to the gossiping townspeople. He says that the "vitals of the village" are the places where most of the gossiping takes place. I also found it interesting the way he talks about the newspaper. He makes a good point about how people only want to hear about things in the news once and then it gets boring because it is old news, especially if it is news from another country.

 "Not till we are lost, in other words not till we have lost the world, do we begin to find ourselves, and realize where we are and the infinite extent of our relations." This is one of the lines from The Village that really caught my attention. When many people think of Thoreau they think about the man who spent years living alone in nature, just observing his surroundings. Even if this is not extremely accurate, I feel that people can learn from Thoreau from this quote because we can't learn how to find ourselves until we become truly lost in nature.

One of the things that I found while researching Walden is the Walden Woods Project which is trying to keep Thoreau's legacy alive by preserving the land, literature and legacy.