In Walden, Henry David Thoreau describes in great detail his life at Walden Pond and how it led him to the discovery of himself. Despite the fact that his style of writing uses great imagery, irony and metaphors, he begins the collection of writings with a chapter entitled "Economy". This may seem somewhat extravagant on Thoreau's part, however I think it shows the versatility in his writing. He is able to incorporate so many different styles of writing into "Economy", showcasing his true talent as not only one of the greatest minds in history, but one of the greatest writers as well. In this chapter, he accounts for all the money he has spent for supplies and food. To the reader, it looks as though Thoreau gets lost in all of the calculations and numbers dealing with his purchases. However, Thoreau is more enticed by the preciousness of time and how to spend it in the most efficient way. Although the chapter is entitled "Economy", ironically, Thoreau is not interested in terms of money or monetary wealth because he has learned to appreciate the time and energy spent to acquire these materialistic things.
Thoreau makes a key point in "Economy" to project that life at Walden was to be a temporary arrangement. He knew that in order for this project to be successful and meaningful, he would have to take away everything that he previously owned, and start a new way of life. Thoreau writes, "None can be an impartial or wise observer of human life but from the vantage ground of what we should call voluntary poverty."(p. 57) Thoreau posses a major paradox: for one to be rich, he must first choose to be poor. He gave up his money, home and the comfortable lifestyle he was accustomed to, to start over and develop a different way of living.
This different way of living causes Thoreau to analyze others" preoccupation with money versus his satisfaction of non-monetary wealth. In this chapter, he begins to use details, which include specific business calculations, as he sets up his own "economy".
