Please take a moment to complete this survey below
Library's collection Library's IT development CancelWhen a man is born, he will not be able to answer
the question on what his purpose of life is. Yet as
time goes by, he has to be able to answer it. For him
who does not know, he will find that life is so hard
that he may live through it. He may become apathetic
toward the developement of the world. He may not know
what to do to make his life better. His life will
depend on what the majority say. However, he may become
materialistic person if he lives in materialistic
society.
The narrator of Walden sees the development of
people from a different point of view. Instead of being
materialistic, he goes to the woods and lives there for
two years and two months. He believes that living
simply and being friendly to nature will help man find
his purpose of life.
The purpose of this thesis is to answer the three
questions in statement of the problems. Those are the
reason why the narrator goes to the woods, how the idea
of simplicity evident in the narrator's life and the
benefit that the narrator gains from his living simply
in the woods.
To back up the idea of simplicity, in review of
related literature, it will include literary theories
on character and setting and literary criticism on the
author and his work. Also Rollo May's theory on stages
in consciousness of self.
In the analysis, it shows the narrator's simple
life in the woods. He lives only with the bare
essentials. His activities are simple: growing beans
and reading. This means that he has more time for
contemplating on life and appreciating nature. In his
two years and two months of life at Walden Pond, he has
become a friend of nature. His experiences of a simple
life lived close to nature develop his physical and
inner strength. Moreover, they help him discover his
purpose of life, that is, to live not just for himself,
but for other people.
He feels that he has to leave the woods in order
to warn his townsmen of the danger of materialism.
Otherwise, he will not be able to "brag as lustily as
chanticleer in the morning, standing on his roost"
(Walden, 69), to warn his neighbors if he continues
living in the woods. Thus, after two years and two
months of a simple life at Walden Pond, he goes back to
the city where he is able to continue living simply and
able to warn his townsmen about the danger of
mater iali sm.
Thus, this thesis represents the narrator's
consciousness due to his doubtness about his idea of
simplicity. After he practises his idea of simplicity
in the woods, he experiences a kind of rebirth. So that
he returns to his materialistic society with a
conviction that he will be able to face the face. In
this case, the fact that the townsmen will scold and
reject him when he applies his idea of simplicity in
his materialistic society.