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Thoreau's views on individuality and conformity in Walden

Summary:

In Walden, Thoreau advocates for individuality and self-reliance, criticizing societal conformity. He believes that true fulfillment and understanding come from personal introspection and living according to one's principles, rather than adhering to societal expectations. Thoreau's experiment at Walden Pond exemplifies his commitment to living authentically and independently.

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In Walden, what is Thoreau's view on individuality and conformity?

All of Walden can be understood as a passionate argument in favor of living a non-conformist, individualist life. This, according to Thoreau, is the only way to live life fully.

Thoreau states in the first chapter that he has sought out the simplest life possible, near Walden Pond, so that he can find out who he is as an individual and what life is when stripped to its bare essentials. He argues that by accumulating material goods and going into to debt to conform to society's ideas of an appropriate lifestyle, most people

lead lives of quiet desperation.

He knows that spending a year at Walden Pond, not working, subsisting in a tiny cabin, is a non-conformist choice. Nevertheless, he explains in one of the most famous lines in the book that he

wanted to front only the essential facts of life . . . and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.

Thoreau's goal is to "suck out all the marrow of life," and he can only do this, he believes, by living in a way that does not conform but is true to himself as an individual.

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In Walden, what is Thoreau's view on individuality and conformity?

Thoreau goes to Walden for solitude.  That is the overall summation of what he believes and what he represents.  He feels that we don't really need any holy men to teach us, and we don't need institutions to know God.  If we are "true to ourselves" then we will know God. 

Along with that, one of Thoreau's most famous quotes is

‘‘If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.’’

This shows that he does not believe in conformity.  We should all be individuals and independent.  He shows this theme of individuality in the very fact that he leaves society to spend time alone in nature.  He needs to be, think, and live alone for awhile to understand nature as deeply as he can.

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What are Thoreau's views on conformity and nonconformity in Walden?

Like his good friend and fellow transcendentalist Emerson, Thoreau believed that conformity was most often the path to misery. He argued that nonconformity was the way to find your truest and most joyful self. Thoreau asserted that the mass of humankind live in "quiet desperation" because of conforming to society's dictates.

In Walden, Thoreau recounts the joys of living a nonconformist life in a tiny cabin on the shores of Walden Pond. His goal was to simplify his life as much as possible in order to get at the essence of living, unencumbered by the baggage of material goods.

In this book, he writes to praise nonconformity to the world's ways. He writes that the joyful life is the highest good a person can achieve, though it is not one understood by society:

If the day and the night are such that you greet them with joy, and life emits a fragrance like flowers and sweet-scented herbs, is more elastic, more starry, more immortal,—that is your success. All nature is your congratulation, and you have cause momentarily to bless yourself. The greatest gains and values are farthest from being appreciated.

Thoreau uses the dull imagery of dusty and rutted roads to describe conformity. Then, mixing metaphors, he describes an alternative path of standing on the deck of a ship to see the world's beauties. This path of nonconformity is preferable to sitting closed, like an ordinary person, in a cabin below:

How worn and dusty, then, must be the highways of the world, how deep the ruts of tradition and conformity! I did not wish to take a cabin passage, but rather to go before the mast and on the deck of the world, for there I could best see the moonlight amid the mountains.

Thoreau makes one of the most eloquent pleas for nonconformity in all of literature, in my opinion.

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What are Thoreau's views on conformity and nonconformity in Walden?

Thoreau argues that "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.  What is called resignation is confirmed desperation."  He means that those of us who simply conform, who go along with the status quo and fail to question whatever society tells us is the right path, are really only resigning ourselves to a life that will never ultimately be fulfilling because we won't be choosing for ourselves and making the most of our time.  We are made desperate and unhappy by the common wisdom that we must work hard in order to acquire more, and then we must continue to work so that we can maintain what we've acquired.  Pretty soon, all we do is work and we become slaves to our possessions instead of our passions.  He advises nonconformity so that each of us can have the most possible amount of time to do whatever it is that we love.  He wants us to ignore society's directives to acquire and do the things we truly care about instead.

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Describe Thoreau’s views on individuality and conformity in "Walden".

Thoreau was a friend of Emerson who provides some great language for understanding Thoreau's attitude.  In "Self-Reliance" Emerson puts it succinctly:  "Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist." [somehow translating "man" to "human" or "person" doesn't work ... so we'll leave the word and extend the meaning].  You will pay a price for this: 

"For nonconformity, the world whips you with its displeasure." 

But it is the only way we can find out who we really are.   This quote will use up most of my words, but it's famous and always worth re-reading:

   "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next ."   Thoreau

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