Henry David Thoreau, Where I Lived and What I Lived For Essay

Henry David Thoreau, Where I Lived and What I Lived For - Essay Example â€Å"The millions are awake enough for physical labor; but only one in a million is awake enough for effective intellectual exertion, only one in a hundred millions to a poetic or divine life.† According to Thoreau, life has become so busy with the rushing railroad and the preoccupation with commerce and other such non-essential aspects of life that the average man has completely lost sight of his own worth and the true realities of life. In detailing the costs associated with building his home, including such notes as the use of refuse shingles for the roof and sides and the purchase of two second hand windows, he rails against the inflated prices and costs of living found within the town or city as a part of the capitalistic process. â€Å"I thus found that the student who wishes for a shelter can obtain one for a lifetime at an expense not greater than the rent which he now pays annually.† Having rejected the concept of ownership in the form of deeds and fences as well as condemned the process of ownership in which prices become inflated well higher than they had to be, Thoreau then moves to describe the false impressions of living space to which most people in the commercial world seem to cling. Recognizing the smallness of his home, Thoreau first indicates the unnecessary extravagance of the homes of others: â€Å"Many of our houses, both public and private, with their almost innumerable apartments, thei r huge halls and their cellars for the storage of wines and other munitions of peace, appear to be extravagantly large for their inhabitants.  Ã‚  They are so vast and magnificent that the latter seem to be only vermin which infest them.† However, he also begins to indicate how the appropriate living space isn’t just the empty rooms and built spaces of human creation, but should include the shared spaces of the outdoors, the connection with nature and the