Thoreau's pleasure in considering where to live is not in the actual acquisition of material goods, to which he is averse, but in the contemplation of what a life could be like there. He seeks a place that is separate from society.
For Thoreau, being close to nature is the best part of his choice of place to live. Acquiring the material possession of a house is something he must put up with in order to live in nature.

Independence Day has symbolic meaning as the day Thoreau becomes self-reliant and the day that he becomes one of nature's inhabitants.

Thoreau's close observation of nature testifies to his profound relationship with it, characterized both by awe of its spiritual greatness and intimacy with its everyday workings.

Nature is his spiritual guide, leading him in its simple natural rhythms toward his own spiritual path and his proper work.

PLOT SUMMARY | Seeking solitude and self-reliance, Thoreau says, he moved to the woods by Walden Pond, outside Concord Massachusetts, where he lived for two years, writing this book, before returning to society. In the book he sets out his beliefs about society and the nature of human existence, saying first that he believes men need not work as hard as they do, if they are willing to simplify their lives and follow their own instincts. Thoreau designs a life of "voluntary poverty" for himself, determining the absolute necessities of man's existence to be: food, shelter, clothing, and fuel. Criticizing society's spiritually empty obsessions with clothing and elaborate homes, as well as with formal education, travel, and the use of animal labor, he praises the savage man, who is free from the distraction of society's institutions and lives a simple life. Thoreau builds his own small cabin, earns some money by working in his bean-field, and keeps meticulous financial records to demonstrate how little a man