Only a few variations of carbon molecules truly separate living organisms from inanimate objects. Still, the science does not explain to the most stubborn individuals why humans, in all of their complexity, stem from random happenstance, revealing that merely knowing the science of life does not equate to knowing the meaning behind it. Instead of in a lab, Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Self-Reliance and Henry David Thoreau’s Walden and Civil Disobedience look within the self for these answers. Emerson hypothesizes them to be found in independent living. Thoreau, however, theorizes on the value of a simplistic lifestyle in Walden, before annexing the need for governmental reform in Civil Disobedience. Yet, despite the slight distinctions, both men know
