“Every Generation laughs at the old fashions, but follows religiously the new.” -Heny David Thoreau

As a great writer, Henry David Thoreau had many poems and quotes that are mentioned in classes. This quote stuck out to me because he is discussing the style of the generations and how it’s interesting that as much as the style changes they stay the same. As we know a style might go out of style for a while but it always comes back to become the “latest” fashions. Thoreau’s purpose is to bring awareness to the idea that the youth laughs at the older styles but they will be repeated. While researching, I saw that he quoted this in his work, Walden, published in 1854. He was a transcendentalist and his works centered on the natural aspect of the world and all it had to offer. The context of this quote in Walden is that style has become an art for people and everything is a statement showing individualism. He also seems to point out that people focus more on the fashions that differ slightly by patterns and they will be sold as the seasons unfold. This quote connects to me because I realize that at one point I thought that some fashions were out of style but I see how everything comes full circle. It only takes one person of influence to bring a style back to the forefront. I chose this quote because I remembered my mother telling me about jean jackets and how when she was younger that’s all they wore, many many years later children are wearing the jackets thinking they’re recreating a certain style. This quote will make me concentrate on what I read and write. I’ll think about how it’s mentioned in the bible how nothing under the sun is original. With that being said, I think about how I’ll put a twist on whatever I write and make it my own, just as generations to come will do. This quotation brings up a question of how can we put a twist on things that have been done before and make them our own. It inspires me to be better than generations before me and make those after me work even harder. I agree with this quote because it brings back the age old saying that history repeats itself.

http://transcendentalism-legacy.tamu.edu/authors/thoreau/