Thoreau Fashion Police

(Today's Fashion Police would not approve of his Kyle Orton neck beard)

Henry David Thoreau in his book Walden, explore many different aspects of society, and try to look at ways we over complicate things. This is shown through his journey in living in the woods for two years to find the bare necessities of life; "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean..."(Walden 72) So he believes that through simplicity man can reach his best state of mind.

One of the things he explores is the clothes we wear, and how the idea of clothing has a way different meaning than what Thoreau discovers. He makes specific claims about clothing when he says, "...the object of clothing is, first, to retain the vital heat, and secondly, in this state of society, to cover nakedness..."(Walden 16) I believe that this was true, but society abandoned this idea centuries ago. I don't like what it has done to some of the youth I see now at my high school, because it has further divided kids into groups. Many kids dress certain ways that I know are not the way they want to dress, but they do it anyway to impress their peers. whether it be different styles, or the way they wear they wear their hats, fashion has been converted into a way to judge people. Although I know it will never be possible to convert all of mankind back into clothes that just satisfy his two necessary principles, I really hate what clothes have done to people, especially the youth, because it has made kids become more self conscience of themselves also. It has gone to the point were kids become uncomfortable if they are wearing something that isn't approved by their peers. I see it everyday, whether it be in a classroom, the halls, or at lunch. Somebody, whether it be a friend of mine or not may walk in, and immediately there may recieve a rude comment of disapproval if they are wearing some piece of attire that "isn't cool". And sadly chances are even if the kid really likes that new hat or shirt, they will never wear it again to school because of the ridicule they received. So because of that I wish that we could return to clothes that satisfy only Thoreau's necessities of heat, and nakedness so that we won't have to deal with the pressures of new fashion and trends.