Walden

Traditionally, existentialism has been viewed as mostly twentieth-century philosophical movement, and transcendentalism a nineteenth-century one. Not only is Henry David Thoreau’s Walden Pond an existentialist work, but by examining the similarities and interrelations between existentialist thought and Walden, we can understand Thoreau’s purpose in writing it. Walden Pond is not a treatise on nature, nor a manual on how to live one’s life, but rather a kind of how-to guide for those …

…Walden is meant to be an existentialist work, to instruct readers how to find their own reality, truth, and fundamental existence. Thoreau requested that "rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth" (228). Walden is Thoreau’s gift to the world, and rather than love, money, or fame, he has given humanity the methods by which to find its own individual truth, a philanthropic act for which he will be forever remembered. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ **Bibliography**