Sunday, April 15, 2012

Henry David Thoreau (Walden Ch.1 Economy)

     It was clear to see from the start of this text that there was a large amount of Emerson's influence throughout.  Mainly because a large theme was that work takes over, and often people lose themselves in work.  A famous quote, "lives of quiet desperation" there is no play for them.  The second important message throughout the work was, the cost of a thing is the amount of what I will call life which is required to be exchanges for it, immediately or in the long run.
     It's interesting to think about the amount of life spent paying off debt.  I know I will be spending a lot of time doing that.  We talked about the example of buying a house may be a reasonable price, but in the long run it takes a long time to pay off.  Another thing I found interesting was the necessaries of life, and recognizing that he has the luxery to do things but not everybody does.  Business is a badge of honor, Thoreau thinks we are just running from one thing to another never finishing anything.  

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