The most dehumanizing of our traditional values, the narrator says, is the emphasis placed on property. This is exactly what the narrator achieved by living at Walden, and it is what made possible his consequent spiritual growth as an individual. By discarding those values of society which are worthless and sometimes dehumanizing, each individual would be able to discover life's meaning for himself. No one should be tied down by society's definition of himself or life, but should confront life in a new, fresh way. He advises his readers to embark on life as he has done, approaching it as a unique, personal experiment.
The narrator scoffs at the materialistic view of life that enjoys such popular currency. Too many individuals unquestioningly accept what their parents and grandparents believed to be the meaning of life this is the root of man's present predicament. The narrator believes that once a man critically reviews his life he will immediately discover a major hindrance to personal growth and happiness: the blind acceptance of traditional, conventional ways of living as handed down by previous generations. For all men, there is hope if they are willing to take a critical view of their lives, as the narrator has so acutely done, and then set about reforming themselves. They need take only the first step toward perfection: self-criticism.
The narrator's stay at Walden taught him that no one need resign himself to a dreary, drudging life no man has to be "so occupied with the factitious cares and superfluously coarse labors of life that its finer fruits cannot be plucked." The narrator found that all men may confidently hope for a better life.
he has not time to be anything but a machine." The narrator is especially saddened that even farming, an activity which allows men to live close to the spiritually elevating influences of nature, has lost its noble character and has become simply another enervating and dehumanizing way to accumulate wealth and property. He can only regretfully conclude that modern man, obsessed with material gain, has "not leisure for a true integrity. While living at the pond, he had the opportunity to view society from the outside and see that, in contrast to his happy situation, most men "lead lives of quiet desperation." While continually perfecting his life by living simply and close to nature, he could see other men wasting their lives by frantically scurrying here and there, foolishly chasing after wealth and social status which could never fulfill their deepest needs. He hopes to explain the spiritually rich life he enjoyed and, at the same time, through presenting the example of his own life, teach his readers something about the shortcomings and possibilities of theirs. Walden begins with the narrator informing his audience that this book was written in answer to questions posed about his two-year stay at Walden Pond.
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