摘　要

本文研究课题的前提是基于当今社会物质化的迅猛发展，人们一心追名逐利，利欲熏心，精神生活的匮乏与缺失，以及对自然资源的过度开发导致资源的破坏与稀缺。本文旨在唤起人们对自然的热爱与精神生活的追求与向往。
本文首先介绍了《瓦尔登湖》的写作背景。主要从梭罗所处的自然环境康科德和瓦尔登湖，超验主义的时代背景以及社会环境工业时期精神文明的失落这三个方面进行阐述；然后从两个方面就《瓦尔登湖》的主题展开讨论。第一方面即善待自然，人与自然是平等的。第二是回归自然，人类是自然的一部分；最后指出了《瓦尔登湖》的现实意义，即对简单生活的倡导，反对物欲以及对精神生活的追求。
本文与其它相关内容的作品比起来。其重点主要侧重在对现实社会的思考和反思，而不是仅仅分析著作本身的含义和内容。

关键词：精神；简单化；自然

Abstract

The premise of the topic in this article is based on the rapid development of today's materialistic society. People are addicted to chasing fame and fortune. They are greed   and selfish. There is almost no meaningful and valuable spirits in their mind.  Over-exploitation of natural resources causes the destruction and scarcity of resources. The paper aims to recall people’s love to nature and pursuit of the spiritual life.
    This paper first introduces the writing background of Walden: mainly from the natural environment of Concord and Walden, the historical background of Transcendentalism and the social environment of losing spiritual civilization during industrial period; then from the two aspects discuss the subjects of "Walden". The first aspect is about human’s kindness to nature. Man and nature are equal to each other. The second is related to people’s returning to nature. Human is a part of nature. It finally concludes practical significance of "Walden", which is advocacy of a simple life, the opposition to materialism and the pursuit of spiritual life.
Compared with other related works, it is primarily focused on thinking and reflection of social reality rather than just analyzing the meaning and content of the work itself.

Key Words: spirit; simplicity ; love

1 Introduction
    On July 4, 1845, Henry David Thoreau a lonely thinker who lives in the lakeside forest which is not far from Concord uses his own hands over more than two years time to live a primitive and simple life. Some people say he is very similar to a Chinese poet Tao Yuan Ming. Tao as a well-known ancient Chinese hermit can not endure the darkness of society at that time, so he chooses to live in seclusion to maintain the noble ambition. However, Thoreau is different. His life can not be referred to as a hermit. In the book we can see him get in touch with villagers and his cabin often has guests for visiting. More importantly, he chooses this kind of lifestyle which has his own uniqueness. “I go to the forest and hope to live a prudent life. Only to face the most basic living, I am trying to understand whether they can learn to relate everything to me.”