Henry Thoreau (Walden) Response

After reading Thoreau's chapter, "Where I Live and What I Lived For" I feel that his book Walden could be considered a memoir if he actually talked more about his experiences. I felt that this chapter should not have been chapter two, but should have been the epilogue. It seemed to me that this chapter summarized not why he went there, but more importantly what he learned from his living experiment. I am not convinced that Thoureau didn't go out into nature because he knew that he wanted to live every day to the fullest and being apart of nature (as much as he "could" be) was his way of doing this. I feel that he wanted something more out of life and then after living in nature for the extended period in which he did, he was able to write such an articulate and beautiful chapter. But as it stands, if all of the chapters were written like this chapter I am not sure that I would consider the book as a whole to be a memoir. I would consider it more as a book of reflections coupled with a "how to live a better life" manual. Yes, the author, as well as the reader, should learn something after a memoir (at least I believe so) but it shouldn't be spelled out, as Thoreau did.

I definitely gain insight about Thoreau after reading this. I find that he is a lover of nature and the wonderful creatures that reside within nature. I find out that he wants to truly live this life to the fullest. He wants to be awake for the entirety of this life, and to experience his experiences. He wants to be one of the million, who is actually awake and changing this world. To be honest I wasn't really liking what I was reading until I got to this part of the chapter, talking about sucking the morrow out of the bones of life. I had heard this before, but for some reason it really struck me when it was in context of the chapter. It endeared Thoreau to me. I too want to live life to the fullest, while changing the world that we live in for the better. It was beautiful because Thoreau was not saying, "eat, drink and be merry" he was saying, you are alive and have a moral obligation to live this life to the fullest. He spoke of changing this world, He was practicing what he preached as can be seen by his other works speaking against slavery, and for the rights of an untouched nature.