“Life Without Principle””. Living simply was crucial to Thoreau because he believed it was crucial to live life to the fullest and to attempt to understand the dense, complex functions of the mind. He spent an unsurmountable amount of time spent on making sense of how he fit into the plan of the world. This is made clear when John Powell writes, “the task of living life, exploring the depths of his mind, and validating his own existence.” One aspect of simplicity that Thoreau spent the majority of his time on was individualism. He did not want to, “fit in” with a social group. Donna Williams writes, “his identity was founded on individualism rather than membership in any cultural group,” to show that Thoreau wanted to be his own entity apart from the people of Concord. He strongly believed in the self and being able to live life on his own through the set of beliefs that he believed in. This is clear when Elizabeth Stoddard writes in her essay, “Individualism is the altar at which he worships” (383). One aspect of individualism that Thoreau enjoyed was completing tasks on his own tasks that were necessary to life. He spent time in the woods surrounding Walden to erect his own small home and spent time to raise his own methods of crops. Gamaliel Bailey writes in his essay, “raise corn, beans, and potatoes, and do one’s own cooking, hermit like,” to show that Thoreau lived so individually that he was a
“Life Without Principle””. Living simply was crucial to Thoreau because he believed it was crucial to live life to the fullest and to attempt to understand the dense, complex functions of the mind. He spent an unsurmountable amount of time spent on making sense of how he fit into the plan of the world. This is made clear when John Powell writes, “the task of living life, exploring the depths of his mind, and validating his own existence.” One aspect of simplicity that Thoreau spent the majority of his time on was individualism. He did not want to, “fit in” with a social group. Donna Williams writes, “his identity was founded on individualism rather than membership in any cultural group,” to show that Thoreau wanted to be his own entity apart from the people of Concord. He strongly believed in the self and being able to live life on his own through the set of beliefs that he believed in. This is clear when Elizabeth Stoddard writes in her essay, “Individualism is the altar at which he worships” (383). One aspect of individualism that Thoreau enjoyed was completing tasks on his own tasks that were necessary to life. He spent time in the woods surrounding Walden to erect his own small home and spent time to raise his own methods of crops. Gamaliel Bailey writes in his essay, “raise corn, beans, and potatoes, and do one’s own cooking, hermit like,” to show that Thoreau lived so individually that he was a