text: walden question. thoreau? why did thoreau leave the woods. i don't think he left out of loneliness becuase he said that solitude was his friend. also what does he hope to gain by living in the woods. my reaspn would be to completely simplify his life. can you give me some addtional info? thoreau left the woods because he felt like he spent too much time lamenting the world's problems and not enough fixing them.  background info:  emerson was thoureau's hero.  emerson taught everything that thoreau believed (mainly transcendentalism and a mix b/w anarchy and true communism-not chinese communism). however, thoureau discovered that emerson was a hipocrite- he didn't practice what he preached- and he (thoreau) decided that he didn't want to be known as a hipocrite.  unfortunately, thoureau's circle of influence was much smaller than emerson's, so he didn't do a whole lot to change the world.   thoreou wanted to live in the woods because he wanted to live "deliberately" and simply. here is a quote from his essay "where i lived and what i lived for" :      "i went to the woods because i wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if i could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when i came to die, discover that i had not lived."  i hope this helped- i'm studying thoreau right now too- so i'm not exactly an expert, you should try reading "the night thoreau spent in jail"- it will either make things clearer for you, or confuse you even more.