Henry David Thoreau - Walden Ch. 1

Throughout this chapter of the writing named Walden, he says that we need to be as much a part of nature as we can.  He puts forward his belief that it is better for us to get out and experience life for ourselves than for anything else to happen in our lives.

He shows the economy works better for us if we don't go to college by showing that he was able to build a cottage in the woods at Lake Walden for the same price that it costs to rent a dorm room that's a little smaller at a university per year.  This is kind of his way of saying that universities should not be where we go to learn and to live.  We should be getting out in nature and living life and learning things from our experiences.

The last major point of his I want to talk about is the point that "these things are more easily acquired than got rid of."  He's basically saying that material things can be gotten extremely easily if you get out and work for them yourselves.  Once you get them, though, it is difficult to get rid of them because you feel some sort of connection or pride with it.  Or maybe it's just too hard to get rid of because not everyone needs it.  Either way, this chapter's underlying tone is that you should do things for yourself instead of getting them done for you.