erience. Thoreau asks the question, “what is the good of having a nice house without a decent planet to put it one?” It was his life in nature that was his great theme. In order for Thoreau to write so much on nature he had to be familiar with it. His knowledge of the woods and fields, of the rivers, the ponds, and swamps, of every plant and animal was outstanding. Thoreau wrote Walden in which the theme of it was the relationship to the order and beauty of nature in the human mind. This book consists of records of Thoreau's stay at Walden Pond. Thoreau's love and devotion to nature and his writing was a key to his excellence in writing. Henry David Thoreau also felt that individualism was a great necessity to his writing style. Thoreau demonstrated his idea of independence in many ways. He worked for pay intermittently, he made relationships with many of the towns outcasts, he never married, he signed off from the First Parish Church rather than be taxed automatically to support it every year, and he lived alone in the woods for two years, in seclusion. His nearest neighbor was at least a mile away. While he was living independently in the woods, he thought of many new ideas for his literature. Thoreau even tried to encourage others to assert their individuality, each in his or her own way. He also believed that independent, well-considered actions arose naturally from a questing attitude of mind. He was first and foremost an explorer, of both the world around him and the world within him. As Thoreau himself put it, “To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts, not even to found a school, but so to love wisdom as to live according to its dictates, a life of simplicity, independence, magnanimity, and trust.” Thoreau came to much of his great literature due to the amount of experiences he had throughout his life. His major experience was living at Walden Pond for two years and learning about his o...
