Where I Lived and What I Lived For

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Annotated Bibliography: Where I Lived and What I Lived For
Thoreau, Henry D. Walden. “Where I Lived and What I Lived For” Walden or Life in the Woods. Boston: Ticknor and Fields (1854).
Where I Lived and What I lived For is the second chapter of the above book. In this chapter, Thoreau explores various perceptions regarding life by presenting to the Western World various values about the East such as simplicity, mindfulness, and the importance of living in present moments. Similarly, the author discusses the need for people to detach themselves from wealth and materialism through memories on various places he almost settled before he came to his current residence at Walden Farm (Thoreau 62). The chapter suggests that people should not preoccupy themselves with escaping day-to-day rush then to enable them to understand the true meaning of life. To this end, the narrator decides to live in the woods away from the society and appreciates such solitude because it allows him to “live free and uncommitted” to any obligations (Thoreau 64). The narrator appreciates living close to nature and can only acquire a house to enable him to comply with the demands of nature, which he enjoys at Walden Farm. Thoreau asserts that he enjoys every morning, which he considers a time for renewal as his way of appreciating simplicity. The author employs imagery/symbolism such Independence Day to show the day he becomes self-reliant by taking up abode in the forest before even completing his house (Thoreau 64).

Besides, the author presents another symbol through the narrators bathing at the pond, which signifies spiritual cleansing through water and the religious rituals of baptism. The narrator concludes by encouraging the readers to sludge through their time of existence until they hit rock bottom in which they can determine truth. In other words, the author expresses the ability of people to elevate their status through conscious endeavor by “spending their time as deliberately as nature,” (Thoreau 73).