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Separation Of Society In Henry David Thoreau's Essay 'Walking'

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In Henry David Thoreau’s essay Walking, he promotes the separation of society in order to transcend the limitations society brings that infringe on man’s ability to be truly free. Thoreau begins to explain just how pointless society is to him by writing, “Hope and the future for me are not in lawns and cultivated fields, not in towns and cities, but in the impervious and quaking swamps.”(Thoreau 7) To him the very idea of society in the form of cultivating the land does not bring prosperity, but the raw earth does. Walking away from the very idea of society brings mankind closer to future in which freedom is achievable. To Thoreau society hinders on man's ability to see a prosperous future. He highlights this yet again when writing, “I saw

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