Henry Thoreau's "Where I Lived, and What I Lived For"

I quite enjoyed Henry Thoreau’s “Where I Lived, and What I Lived For”. I was refreshing to just read a story about the farm he bought and not have this huge meaning to the story. Also, he didn’t use huge words to make himself look more educated. I hate when people use bug words to make themselves look smarter. First, I don’t really understand what they are saying so I don’t really care about what they are writing and second, it just makes them look like they are trying to look smart but aren’t really succeeding at it.

            I really enjoyed the scenery that Thoreau put into his writing. I could almost see the house in which he lived in. It was really interesting how he kept referencing different things that really did not have any relation to each other. He referenced a lot of Greek god things. For example, on page 888 he referenced Atlas, which is a Greek God, who was forced by Zeus to stand on the earth supporting the heavens on his head and in his hands, which was a punishment for creating war against the Olympian Gods. He also references constellations, such as the constellation of Cassiopeia’s Chair and Aquila. Also, he puts in a lot of things from Hinduism, like he uses a different name for Krishna, who is the eighth avatar or Vishnu in Hindu mythology.

            A lot of the stuff he references and compares things to I don’t really know about so at times it was a little hard to discern what he was trying to say, but overall it was a good text.