Simplicity is the way of life that transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau advocated as the most fulfilling of all. Although sometimes irrational, Thoreau desired a life more closely connected to nature than the majority of a rapidly industrializing America. He favored a more agrarian approach rather than a mechanized form of labor and production, as this, he believed, distanced man from his roots. Walden, one of Thoreau's most famous commentaries on such a lifestyle, puts his ideology into perspective as he travels through the forests of Concord, Massachusetts near Walden Pond. Living in and around a small cabin, Thoreau realizes that when one is with nature and alone, he sees life as immeasurable and limitless in its possibilities. So, to live this way, one must abandon all one's "extravagant" material possessions and forget all preconceived notions of the dynamic American lifestyle. Throughout the novel, Thoreau emphasizes the principle of living for a purpose. For example, in the chapter "Where I Lived and Why I Lived", he states, ...