Reflection on "Walden"

Reflection on “Walden”
In “Walden”, Henry David Thoreau uses his style to discuss life and property. He also uses figurative language to describe the farms he is looking to buy and his cabin in the woods.
Thoreau begins “Walden” off by talking about how there will come a time in every person’s life when they will want to buy a property, and he compares this time to when he was looking at property. While he is thinking through his purchases, he begins to ponder what it means to be rich and have a lot of money. This links to romanticism because he is trying to define what it means for him, or other people, to be rich. He came to conclusion that it does not matter about how much money you have, but what you can do with the stuff you have. When Thoreau retires to his abode in the woods, he moves far from the town so he can think about nature and try and learn what nature can teach him. This links to transcendentalism because transcendentalists were obsessed with nature and it also links to romanticism because he is trying to define what it means to be an individual. He wants to learn what nature has to teach him so he can die a content man. He is also trying to ponder what it means to be an individual and incorporate nature into what he learns. He wants to reduce life to the simplest it can be, and he is content with that.
Thoreau also uses figurative language such as metaphors and similes. Thoreau compares his new cabin in the woods to a place for a traveling god to rest, or where a goddess can rest. He also compares his new life in the woods to that of the Spartans, whose lives were simple.