瓦尔登湖读后感英文版

henry david thoreau （1817-1862）， the author of walden, was born in concord, massachusetts. when he was a child, he always went to the woods and field with his old brother. so he loves the nature very much. in the middle of 19th century, american economies developed so rapidly that most people pursuit the material life and ignore the spiritual life. but thoreau wants to live a simple life. also for the transcendentalist movement was centered in concord and emerson had a great influence on him. all these made thoreau go to build a cabin on the shore of walden pond and live alone to close to the nature in 1845. later, he wrote the famous book, walden, which mainly talks about his life and thoughts during he lived alone in the woods near walden pond.

when walden was published in 1854, it was not well accepted by people. instead it was regarded as "wicked and heathenish" .it was published only one time until thoreau died of disease. but many years later especially in twentieth century, it was gradually known and appreciated by lots of readers all over the world.

this is a book which tells in spring thoreau starts building a cabin in the woods， thinking about life, reading some books, and listening to the sound of nature. in autumn, he cultivates beans, observes walden pond. in winter, the walden pond freeze, lots of animals accompanies with him. as?spring's coming, the walden?and other ponds melt. every thing in nature is awake and reborn including thoreau. after two years,?thoreau leaves.

thoreau first writes that most people pursuit their necessary things of life such as fashionable clothes, houses and equipment. they pursuit these things while thoreau go to the woods to building a cabin which only costs $28.12, eating simple food and?needing little furniture. so?one of chapters in his book, “higher law", emphasizes more on the spiritual aspect instead of the satisfaction of material. further more; he urges people to read more classic literature such as homer’s iliad and odyssey and?other great writers’ masterpiece.

he also writes that though he?lives alone in the woods, he is close to?nature and makes himself as a part of nature. he?lives alone, but sometimes he also?talks with his visitors who are honest, sincere, thinkable and loving their life.

thoreau also mentions that the noise?in the town and the whistle of train disturb the quite life of the town. however, in the woods?life is quite. when?he?lives in the woods, he can listen to animals' sounds such as bird's singing, owl’s hooting, cockerel’s crowing etc. he?lives with animals friendly. he also describes the?walden pond. the water, blue and green, clear and pure, freezes in winter and melts in spring.

when i was reading walden?i felt that?i was listening to a wise man’s talking. the words and phrases about the nature?especially the walden pond are beautiful and?fascinating. the sentences are full of wisdom and philosophy.

reading this?book reminds me of those people who work hard to earn money, waste lots?of money to buy luxury and expensive things, waste time to entertain themselves. in my?point?of view, they may easily lose themselves, and though their bodies are full, their minds are hungry. the real life is to?make every?complicate thing to?be simple and?enrich our heart?and soul. in a word, just simplicity 、simplicity and simplicity!

one of?thoreau's thoughts about solitude attracts me deeply for i’m the person who likes to be alone. there are some reasons for why i like to be alone: firstly i think that living with others is?easy going to have a conflict whatever?you?are best friends. secondly just as thoreau?saying ‘a man thinking or working always alone and let him be where he will’。 i?always spent most of time to study, and i like to make myself busy all the time, so i have little time to stay with others. in addition to, what i'm?thinking and interested in is quite different from others. i like studying at library and reading books but don't like pursuit fashionable and new trend things for it makes me feel tired and bored. so i always live alone and people who around me think i must be lonely. actually it's not true. they don't understand me at all. when i'm studying, learning or reading, i don't think other things, just immersing in the ocean of knowledge .my heart is quite calm. and if learn new knowledge i got a feeling of happiness, satisfaction and fulfillment. so i was so surprised that what thoreau said was exactly same to what i thought. i was so glad to find a person who has the same idea with me.

when thoreau lived alone in the woods, people did not understand him, even emerson thought what he did was wrong. and now, people who around me think my life is not good. but i think thoreau’s life was successful, meaningful and happy, so do i. because i think that the success and happiness of life all come from exactly value. everyone deeply desires of themselves life. when you know what the value of yourself is, meanwhile you can enjoy your life according to the value every time. you will find that everyday you have full of energy and enthusiasm to do anything, hear the sure sound from your heart, and often feel intense achievement, the most important is that your heart is peace and calm.

last but not least, i envy thoreau so much for he lives in such a beautiful and comfortable nature environment. he can breathe the fresh air, live with wild animal friendly; appreciate the scenery of walden pond etc. while in modern society, people pursuit their own interests to hunt and kill animals, cut down trees and pollute the rivers and so on. as a result, the number of wildlife is decreasing, the area of lake is shrinking, and the water is not pure any more. the environment problems such as globe warming, climate change and air and water pollution have been becoming increasingly serious. reading this book makes me be aware of protecting the environment to realize the harmony between human and nature.

the concept of responsibility is a necessary fiction. although socities must hold their individuals accountable for their own actions, people's behavior is largely determined by forces not of their own making."

in the title statement, the speaker holds the contention that the concept of 'individual responsibility' is no existence but a fiction. moreover, the speaker says that the behaviors of human beings are fundamentally determined by the environment which out of their control. admittedly, one's actions are deeply influenced by laws, societies, schools and families and other exterior forces; individual responsibility exists and functions as a significant role to rule people's behaviors as well.

on one hand, the highest social animal as human being is, any individual has his specific role in a certain society. and this specific role gives one social identity and individual responsibility through education in schools and influence of ethical and moral standards. though some times one would feel that the certain responsibility is obligation from the society and organizations rather than his 'individual responsibility' at first, in most cases, the accountability would presumably become one's own eventually followed by the final identification of his specific social identity, and then direct one's behaviors without the force from the exterior world. for example, a soldier would think it is his duty to obey the rules without any hesitation; a surgeon would consider healing the patients as his accountability; and a historian would feel it is his responsibility to discover what is behind the historical descriptions. in fact, different careers and roles form diverse individual responsibilities, which result in individuals’voluntary behaviors.

on the other hand, there are not only specific individual responsibilities in diverse areas but also some fundamental values and accountabilities, which we all human beings cherish. from the moment one can speak or even is born, the society begins to instill the moral and ethical standards, which is so called humanity in every one's mind. the older one is, the deeper influence the humanity would be. when one is just a little child, he would go directly to what he like and claim it. then when he is old enough, he would realize that it is incorrect and ashamed. and because of the awareness of what is right and wrong, one would probably never do any misdeed again. actually, humanity is just the common individual responsibility shared by all of us.

however, every one lives in a certain society thereby one's behavior is more or less influenced by forces not of their own making. and to operate normally, every society has its laws, though many times have differences among them. it is true that humanity plays an essential role in ruling individuals' behaviors; yet laws are necessary. under the control of laws, people who have little individual responsibility would probably not dare to do any crime in fear of law punishment. besides laws, for example in school, rules are also an important factor as well as individual responsibility. nowadays, in most universities, a student who does not pass some certain courses in his four years college life would not get his diploma of bachelor's degree. so even if a student does not like his discipline, or dose not care about his gpa, the pressure of graduating forces him not to playing computer or basketball all the time.

in addition, individual responsibility and forces from outside world have overlapped parts some times. for instance, studying diligently is some hard- working students' individual responsibility as well as the pressure from schools and society.

generally speaking, it is hasty and incorrect to conclude that the concept of 'individual responsibility' is a necessary fiction. on the contrary, individual responsibility plays an important role which cannot be replaced. however, laws and the exterior force also have their significance as well. thus we can not put either of them aside and pay more attention to another

although i may not understand thoreau's thoughts completely, i’m really benefited from reading the book, walden.

瓦尔登湖英文读后感

walden is a masterpiece written by henry david thoreau （1817-1862）， who was born in concord, massachusetts.  the age he lived had witnessed the flourish of capitalism as well as the  prosperity of industrialization and urbanization. during the 19th century, the american economy developed at so fast rate that  most people were bound up in pursuing the material satisfaction , while ingored the spiritual life to a great extent. but thoreau was quite different from other people, he disdained the modern civilization and attached  more importance to the spirit than the material. he thought many people of his time lived in a non-human-like modern society and many modern appliances, such as trains and telegraphs, had done harm to people's harmonious life peace and also broken the relationship between human and nature.

in order to prove that without the modern instruments , people can also live a happy life, in 1845, he moved into a cabin on the shore of walden pond and live there alone for two years to get close to the nature .walden, is the famous book mainly talks about his life and thoughts during those days living in the woods .

thoreau was so happy with the life living near the lake of walden that he felt it a sweet grace to have the nature' accompany and even the sounds of rain and the sights around his house were full of sincere friendship. in his eyes, the nature was an intimate friend of him and all things in the nature were lively and vivacious.  and all kinds of animals in the wood, such as field mouses, robins and wild rabbits were amicably treated and regarded as his adorable companions. he even thought that plants were also had the right to live equal with human beings. just because of this, he even blamed himself for hitting chestnut trees with stones. from many words or sentences, we can easily feel thoreau's deep love and care towards nature.

besides, thoreau was a pioneering nature lover, who called on people to stop destorying nature but protect it by setting himself   an example to others. the consciousness of the environmental protection is becoming more and more important in our modern society, while the whole world is trapped in some serious ecological crisises resulting from hunting and killing animals, cutting down trees and polluting the rivers for pursuit of human beings' own interests. we  all have the common sense that the number of wildlife is decreasing, the area of lake is shrinking, and the water is not clear any more. what's worse, environment problems such as globe warming, climate change and air and water pollution are deteriorating during the commercial process . so it's high time that we should realize we never be the dominator of the whole world conquring nature, but should spare no efforts to improve the environment right away. that is, we should comply with the natural laws, make reasonable utilization of natural resources and keep the harmonious development between the society and the environment. only in this way will we has an opportunity to embrace a bright future and achieve a sustainable society .

in the book, walden, thoreau not only advocated the protection of nature, but also encourage people to comprehend and return to nature. he told us using his own experience that by living a simple life close to nature, we human beings will find out the true value of life and significance of existence.

after reading the book, what impressed me most is the description of the fascinating scenery around the walden pound, especially these sentences: "a lake is the landscape's most beautiful and expressive feature. it is earth's eye; looking into which the beholder measures the depth of his own nature. the fluviatile trees next the shore are the slender eyelashes which fringe it, and the wooded hills and cliffs around are its overhanging brows". to thoreau, the walden lake is like a charming and melting girl , who has slender eyelashes and likes to dress herself in different beautiful clothes with the changes of different seasons.

every morning after getting up, thoreau would have a bath in the walden lake to start a new day. after that, he used to wander around the pond and refresh himself with the fresh air. in summer days , he cultivated a piece of land and growed beans, blackberries, johnsworts and the like. the depiction of his leisure rurality spontaneously reminds me of tao yuanming, the famous chinese poet, who lived in the jin dynasty and made his life meaningful by  returning to the nature and perfecting himself. if thoreau and tao yuanming lived in the same period and place, they would probably become best friends.

from the book, we know that during the years when thoreau lived near the walden, he did not completely isolate himself from the outside world. sometimes he went to the town and did odd jobs and would receive visitors and friends in his cabin at times. as i mention before, the intention for his living in the woods was that he wanted to teach people how to live a simple life, achieve enjoyment from the nature, free oneself from the strained daily life and what is more important is to reevaluate the value of social life.

thoreau's though of enjoying a simple life has a more realistic significance and have become a valuable spiritual wealth in our modern society. with the development of the material civilization, people's desires are swelling limitlessly and many people are busy with the pursuit of wealth and luxurious life by any means, including at the expense of nature. however, even in the society materially affluent and technologically advanced , people are not be more happier than those people who lived centuries ago, but even feel less satisfactory and complaint more about their present life as a result of having unbounded desires of getting more and better. therefore, many people who possess a lat have become slaves of machine, working more but do not have the ability to enjoy what they have.

in the book walden, thoreau had realize this problem several hundreds ago. thus, he set his mind to give a enlightenment to awake people and encourage them to live a simple life. his thoughts have great similarity  with the belief of our chinese humanism, that is, the meaning of life lies in the sane and healthy enjoyment of a simple life. in fact, thoreau and his teacher and friend emerson praised highly on confucianism and both them benefited a lot from it.  i am very happy to see the interlinked place between chinese culture and western culture.

reading this book is like having a tranquil steam flow through my heart, washing the dust in my mind. it teaches me how to keep a pure spirit in the complex society, set proper goals for my life as well as enjoy the endows of nature. in short, i feel it quite worthwhile to read the book walden. i sincerely hope more and more people would like to read this book and receive benefits from it .

《瓦尔登湖》读后感——心中的瓦尔登

文/胡英琴

阅读，不仅仅是帮助我们获得知识，获得智慧，更重要的是帮助我们拥有宁静的心态，儒雅的姿态，积极的状态。2019年，我们要 一起 坚持 读好书！龙港幼师读书会第一个读书分享人——胡英琴老师。

“你得成为一个哥伦布，寻找你内心的的新大陆和新世界，开辟海峡，并不是为了贸易往来，而是为了思想融合。”本书作者亨利·大卫·梭罗，美国作家及自然主义者。《瓦尔登湖》是他的代表作，也是美国的经典读物。

个人认为这本书适合想了解大自然而又没办法深入自然的人，喜欢探究生活和内心的人。因为该书有冗长的内心独白和细碎的生活细节的描写。

瓦尔登湖是一个美丽的湖，书中有好多描绘湖的地方。如“九月一日，我发现三两株小枫树的叶子已经红了，离湖不远就在三株岔开的白杨下，一个胡角上，临近这水。啊！它们的颜色诉说着许多的故事。慢慢地，一个又一个星期，每株树德特性都显现出来了，它在光亮如镜的湖面上欣赏自己的倒影。每天清晨，这个画廊经理便取下墙上的旧画，换上一些新的地方画家幅，鲜亮而和谐的色彩多人眼目。”将大自然比喻为画廊经理的表现方式，拟人化地写出湖的美景。

书中的“我”，生活得很满足，他没有豪宅，也没有亿万财产，但是他过的很充实。几平方米的小木屋，再加一块小土地，就是生活了。每天吃自己亲手做的食物，用最原始的方法，展现食物最真实的味道。喜欢吃什么，就在方寸地里种什么，也不必把杂草都去除，或许能得到意外之喜。待收获季节，收获自己劳动得来的果实，那是一种怎样的体会，有些时候，思考思考人生，和邻居聊聊天，钓钓鱼，看看风景，这种生活是怎样的，有些时候，思考思考人生，和邻居聊聊天、钓钓鱼、看看风景，这种生活是怎样的惬意。

我想，梭罗的这本书只是展示了他自己寻找自我的过程，他交给我们一个方法，关键还要靠我们自己去寻找。也许很多人也向往瓦尔登湖那样的世外桃源般的生活，认为那种生活一定会是美好的。但，这只是一种美好的愿望而已。作者在瓦尔登湖生活了两年，最终离开。并不是瓦尔登湖不美，也不是因为他厌倦，而是他发现，其实所谓的世外桃源只存在于自己的内心。如果你内心贫乏、无法平静，就算是环游世界，对你来说没有什么差异，你永远找不到世外桃源，因为它只会存在你的心中。

我常想起书中路人留下的一句话，“最高贵的心灵，是最能知足自满的”。世界的每个角落都绽放烟火，风景是不缺的，却缺的是一颗能体会美的心。乡下的人向往城市繁华喧嚣的生活，而城市里的人羡慕乡下那平静悠闲的日子。为什么三毛能在撒哈拉沙漠上找到那么多美丽的故事？为什么梭罗能在那么差的物质条件下过着让今人艳羡的诗意生活？

生活不在别处，认真对待生活，主动对生活索取，回过头，此处便是你的瓦尔登

瓦尔登湖读后感英文

closing the white cover of the book ’walden’， i just quite confused because so many new words that i can’t recognize. with the help of chinese version downloaded from the internet, after i catch the general idea, a burst of cold water pours into my heart, pure and limpid, clarify my shattered mind without any dirt existing. as some said in preface “walden is a book with loneness and solitude and a book with a single person.” when your mind is uneasy, you have no need reading the book. it requires you to come down and to be at leisure.

the book was written in the middle of the 19th century-a period that is a rapid development of capitalism. under such a background, most people would rather pursue benefits as possible as they can and try every means to obtain higher power and money no matter what it would cost. industrial civilization and noisy society was gradually corrupting the nature of the humanity. however, at this situation, a illuminati graduating from harvard university, carried an axe along with his lone single shadow. then away from the city he ran into the uninhabited walden at the edge of the mountain forest and settled down over here. he insisted on his own ways with a yearning for nature as well as set out the trace of the soul. at the land of the so-called walden” drops of god”。 he became unperturbed in space，lonely in thought.

he quietly uploaded the noise in the city.  then he wrote down the solitude by heart. every time when people read his book, they definitely will be shocked. he fell into meditating about the life. it made people’s heart become as clear as the pure water. i stand in awe of him, his life turned out to be such simple and meanwhile glamorous. it is rather than momentary but significant. his spiritual world is colorful even exquisite beyond compare. maybe in the world seldom exist such a sage like him.

throughout thoreau’s short lifetime, he attempted to encourage people to simplify the life and spare the time to go deep into the real life. at the same time, he let them enjoy it. he told people not to be confused with complicated life by his own experiences. in the direction of thoreau, they would not lose a flash of hope or lose their way in life. they should be a rudder of the life thus start on a new journey. he thought that if people were able to set the simple life by universe regulation, it would not arouse many anxieties which disturbed the inner peace of the heart. the so-called tomorrow would not approach in spite of the ending of the time. we regarded a flash of light as darkness. as we were sober, the first light of morning was going to break.

he calls on people live a simple life that is in order to make people experience something new instead of saving money. maybe this is the value of a person. there’s not any pretence, only be surrounded with solitude and quietness.

at the shore of walden, the author exactly chased for depth, rather, it was pursuing the depth. in a lonely state of mind, he thought about the life and explored the real meaning. solitude inspired his profound thought. “do not give me love, money or reputation, please give me the truth.” this was what he was calling in his heart.

though we can’t live a life in woods around the mountain and walden has disappeared forever, it’s impossible to hinder us have a walden of our own. our heart need being clarified as thoreau has said that let your spirit set out to explore.