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What Is Thoreau's Criticism Of Society

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Clothing, Thoreau argues, is an embarrassingly excessive concern for most people. They worry more about having new, pristine clothes than they do about having a clean conscience. Thoreau urges that choice of clothing be led not by a taste for novelty or by the whims of fashion which people adhere to do fanatically but by utility and simplicity. Without clothes, a man 's social rank would be rightfully indistinguishable. The clothing industry does not serve people 's best interests but only makes corporations rich. Criticism of society is one of the means by which Thoreau seeks to set out his vision of a good life. A taste for new fashions, he believes, is one of society 's ills because it leads people away from themselves, distracting them

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