091112班 黄茜茜 美国文学选读
Book Report
——My View of Walden
Since I have finished reading The Unbearable Lightne of Being last year, I suppose it is the best.But when I get Walden, my heart is caught again.
To be honest, when I first hear about Walden, I have no idea what it is concerned about.After my teacher introduces a bit about it, then I know it is a quiet book.
Because of that favor, I have much interest in it and read it immediately.I have to say, I think it talks nonsense in the Economy chapter, and I become confused when I finish it at the first time.I just learn some thing about Thoreau’s more than two years of life and thought at Walden Pond, it is like a journal.For further studying, I read more literature from library and search for more evaluating from the Internet.
It is generally believed in literary circles that Walden is such a book, a book is called “overcome all worldly thoughts and enter sainthood\" by Eliot, a book together with Bible and the little prince was named one of the \"twenty-five books for shaping the readers \" by America National Library, a book that poets will never abandon.It is very important to know background of a book when you read it.Otherwise，you may not know why the author write it or what the author want to tell readers.In Walden, they are mentioned in chapter two.Just like me, I am not able to understand Walden well at the beginning and think it is nonsense.
It is not the simple description of nature and life of Thoreau, it also reveals that the author comes back to the nature and makes an experiment of life to find the true meaning of life.It seems that if one can meet the required for basic life to the world, one can more easily and more calm to enjoy life.
There are many researches on Walden, the themes contain ecological significance, aesthetic value, relationship between Walden and China, and so on.But, my heart just follow the words.I read it twice.When I think of seclusion, I think of Tao Yuanming.When I think of prose, I think of Zhu Ziqing and his Moonlight over the Lotus Pond.It is said that the writing style of Wei An ultimately from poetry to prose because of Walden.I am indulged in Thoreau’s thought and the words of Walden.The book is fresh,
healthy and inspiring.I love it.
I like the second chapter of it most.In this chapter, the author explains why he choses to live alone in a small, simple cabin at Walden Pond, and why he writes this book.He thinks many of his contemporaries do not understand the real meaning of life.He describes the beauty of nature, some ideas of transcendentalism and his philosophy of life--”simplicity, simplicity, simplicity”.I love these sentences
especially, “Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in.I drink at it; but while I drink I see the sandy bottom and detect how shallow it is.Its thin current slides away, but eternity remains.” There is a metaphor, stream is used to be compared to time.
Although we can not like Thoreau to appreciate the lonely forest life now, Walden has never disappeared.Nothing can prevent us to have a clear Walden in our hearts.It
always can let the hearts be elutriated, according to Thoreau, to your inner exploration.The book is eternal.
I love Walden, such a quiet book.
