In Henry David Thoreau's short story "Walden," Thoreau describes himself as a simplified man who enjoys living by himself in the woods. He chose to live alone, but explained he never grew lonely because he had nature as his company. Compared to society today, Thoreau's way of life is unheard of. Nowadays, people enjoy the complicated lives they live, filling their day with work, school, family, friends, and chores. In society today, people's lives are so cluttered, they become obsessive about a certain thing and slowly sink into a stupor where all they can think about is to go through the motions and forget about the life they are living.
If Thoreau saw the life of a male teenager in society today, he would be overwhelmed. Between the sports, the girls, the schoolwork, and the family, there would be too much to think about. Wake up at six a.m., eat breakfast, go to school, go to basketball practice, get home at seven, eat, shower, and start homework at eight. Go to bed at eleven, only to wake up the next day to do it again. This homogeneous lifestyle would shock Thoreau. He would object that there are too many complications in our life, and that we must focus on only the most important of them: school and family. Everything else should be dropped, and replaced with time to read, time to think, time to relax. Our possessions would also alarm Thoreau. Our cars, our jewelry, our fancy clothes. Thoreau would comment that these belongings were merely a plethora of unnecessary equipment, and that we should keep only what we need. The reason that Thoreau is so content in his cabin in the woods is because he had almost nothing to worry about. Besides the construction of the house, Thoreau had nothing to do, and therefore spent the rest of his time as he pleased. Compared to today, some people enjoy making their life complicated, so that they can stay busy because they subconsciously do not want to think for themselves, but rather follow the norm.