Thoreau and Journey

It’s definitely strange to think that a transcendental (aka 19th century) writer could have written and produced stuff that shares a lot characteristics with a rock song released in 1977 by the band Journey. Henry David Thoreau’s “Walking”  and Journey’s “Hotel California” use similar wording to talk about very similar ideas about life.  Each one talks about ways of looking at life in a non-traditional way that gives readers a feeling of uncertainty about how they normally view or experience their lives. 

 One of the most important ideas in both Thoreau’s essay and Journey’s song is the feeling of being trapped in your own life, but not necessarily knowing that you are or understanding how to break that pattern.  Thoreau says that he is “astonished at the power of endurance...and the moral insensibility...of [his] neighbors who confine themselves...for weeks and months, aye, and years almost together. While Thoreau takes his refreshing and eye-opening walks through beautiful woods and fields that sometimes span the course of an entire afternoon, his neighbors sit in their shops and houses, working away at the same repetitive work that they have done and will be doing for the rest of their lives.  Thoreau is saddened to realize that they will never have the joy of experiencing the refreshing eye-opener that for him, is nature.  Similarly, in Journey’s song, one hears the phrase “we are all just prisoners here of our own device.” This line is suggesting that people sit through their lives, never fully understanding or taking advantage of what might be right in front of them.  Instead, one almost imprisons himself in a repetitive lifestyle, making himself a prisoner to the boring work of familiar daily tasks, and never fully experiencing life in the way that Journey (and Thoreau) believe it should be lived.