Thoreau feels that society has strayed too far from the "pursuit of excellence and purity". He states that man has become too ambitious and too greedy. Man desires to own and gain too many things. People are not living simply anymore. To Thoreau the cost of something is not really its actual cost in dollars and cents. To him the cost of something is the amount of life one person must exchange for it. He claims a man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can let alone. Rather than accumulating things (possessions) Thoreau wanted to enjoy the richness of time. His trek to Walden Pond us his attempt to break away from the lives of desperation that he saw most people lead.

Thoreau borrows an axe and builds a cabin for himself on the shore of Walden Pond in the woods near Boston, Massachusetts. He plants a garden of beans, corn, potatoes, turnips, and other dry vegetables and lives off what he can grow and what he can capture. He has iso

The only way Thoreau could distance himself from society and free himself from all the luxuries of the world was to move to a place where there wasn't a lot of people. Walden was his sanctuary. He was able to clear his mind, live simply, and see life in a new light. His attempt to live on his own was obviously successful. He did not need any luxuries or help from anyone else. He was content being by himself. About his experiences at Walden, Thoreau says "I learned this, at least, by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours...If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them." Thoreau was definitely successful.

As stated earlier, Thoreau in observing people has noticed to his dismay that that they are often slaves to their "supposed needs". Everyone works in various jobs to earn themselves a living. In this process he claims that they become slaves to materialism and acquisition. He also states that most people do not hold onto their jobs because they like their jobs and enjoy doing them. He thinks people are enslave

Some common words found in the essay are:
Boston Massachusetts, Thoreau's Walden, Walden Pond, Walden Thoreau, walden pond, bonded labor,
Approximate Word count = 850
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)