by Dorothy Hoffman

Created on: September 29, 2009

Can Thoreau's Simple Life Work Today?

In Walden, Henry David Thoreau chronicled his personal experiment of simplifying his life in a society that was becoming increasingly complex, materialistic, and "noisy." He believed that "Most of the luxuries and many of the so-called comforts of life are not only not indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind."

Those words could just as easily be applied to twenty-first century America - maybe even more so - and Thoreau's experiment is just as applicable now as it was in his own day. He retreated to a quiet, woodsy setting in Maine, where he could eliminate every unnecessary modern luxury of his day. Reevaluating his needs, he pared down his life to the essentials, raised his own food, took long walks and engaged in other outdoor activities, and in the process renewed himself spiritually through solitude and contemplation. Simplifying one's life in this way, I think, is something we could all benefit from. Nature has a regenerative effect on the human soul, and Thoreau believed we need to connect with the natural world to be fully human.

Thoreau's time certainly seems simpler than our high-tech globalized world. But in the mid-1800s, when he wrote Walden, America was undergoing dramatic social upheavals as it began its transformation from an agrarian to an industrialized urban culture. Great technological advances brought economic benefits, but at a very high price of social disruptions, filthy overcrowded tenements, sweatshop-like working conditions, an exploited working class - both slave and free - and rampant materialism in all aspects of life.

Thoreau was part of the Transcendentalist movement, which saw God everywhere in nature. Though the Transcendentalists didn't reject technology and human society, they resisted American society's obsession with commerce and "progress," looking for a more authentic and spiritual life. It certainly isn't as easy today to find a truly secluded place to "get away from it all" as it was in Thoreau's time, but we don't need to cut ourselves off from the rest of humanity to be in touch with nature. We don't need to live like hermits or forsake all of civilization's conveniences to simplify our lives and free our minds from the maddening clamor of modern culture. Walden was, after all, only a couple of miles outside of a village, and Thoreau was far from isolated.

The roots of Thoreau's philosophy of economy, self-reliance, and communion with nature go far deeper

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