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= Walden =
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Introduction
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'Walden' (; first published as 'Walden; or, Life in the Woods') is an
1854 book by American transcendentalist writer Henry David Thoreau.
The text is a reflection upon the author's simple living in natural
surroundings. The work is part personal declaration of independence,
social experiment, voyage of spiritual discovery, satire, and--to some
degree--a manual for self-reliance.
'Walden' details Thoreau's experiences over the course of two years,
two months, and two days in a cabin he built near Walden Pond amidst
woodland owned by his friend and mentor Ralph Waldo Emerson, near
Concord, Massachusetts.
Thoreau makes precise scientific observations of nature as well as
metaphorical and poetic uses of natural phenomena. He identifies many
plants and animals by both their popular and scientific names, records
in detail the color and clarity of different bodies of water,
precisely dates and describes the freezing and thawing of the pond,
and recounts his experiments to measure the depth and shape of the
bottom of the supposedly "bottomless" Walden Pond.
Background
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There has been much speculation as to why Thoreau went to live at the
pond in the first place. E. B. White stated on this note, "Henry went
forth to battle when he took to the woods, and 'Walden' is the report
of a man torn by two powerful and opposing drives--the desire to enjoy
the world and the urge to set the world straight", while Leo Marx
noted that Thoreau's stay at Walden Pond was an experiment based on
his teacher Emerson's "method and of nature" and that it was a "report
of an experiment in transcendental pastoralism".
Others have assumed Thoreau's intention during his time at Walden Pond
was "to conduct an experiment: Could he survive, possibly even thrive,
by stripping away all superfluous luxuries, living a plain, simple
life in radically reduced conditions?" He thought of it as an
experiment in "home economics". Although Thoreau went to Walden to
escape what he considered "over-civilization", and in search of the
"raw" and "savage delight" of the wilderness, he also spent
considerable amounts of his time reading and writing.
Thoreau used his time at Walden Pond (July 4, 1845 - September 6,
1847) to write his first book, 'A Week on the Concord and Merrimack
Rivers' (1849). The experience later inspired 'Walden', in which
Thoreau compresses the time into a single calendar year and uses
passages of four seasons to symbolize human development.
By immersing himself in nature, Thoreau hoped to gain a more objective
understanding of society through introspection. Simple living and
self-sufficiency were Thoreau's other goals. The whole project was
inspired by transcendentalist philosophy, a central theme of the
American Romantic Period.
Organization
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Part memoir and part spiritual quest, 'Walden' opens with the
announcement that Thoreau spent two years at Walden Pond living a
simple life without support of any kind. Readers are reminded that at
the time of publication, Thoreau has returned to living among the
civilized. The book is separated into several chapters, each of which
focuses on specific themes:
'Economy:' In this first and longest chapter, Thoreau outlines his
project: a two-year, two-month, and two-day stay at a cozy, "tightly
shingled and plastered", English-style 10 by 15 foot cottage in the
woods near Walden Pond. He does this, he says, to illustrate the
spiritual benefits of a simplified lifestyle. He easily supplies the
four necessities of life (food, shelter, clothing, and fuel) with the
help of family and friends, particularly his mother, his best friend,
and Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Waldo Emerson. The latter provided Thoreau with
a work exchange: he could build a small house and plant a garden if he
cleared some land on the woodlot and did other chores while there.
Thoreau meticulously records his expenditures and earnings,
demonstrating his understanding of "economy", as he builds his house
and buys and grows food.
The house's cost is and Thoreau gives "the details because very few
are able to tell exactly what their houses cost and fewer still, if
any, the separate cost of the various materials which compose them":
: Boards Mostly shanty boards.
Refuse shingles for roof and sides
Laths
Two second-hand windows with glass
One thousand old brick
Two casks of lime That was high.
Hair More than I needed.
Mantle-tree iron
Nails
Hinges and screws
Latch
Chalk
Transportation I carried a good part on my back.
In all
'Where I Lived, and What I Lived For:' Thoreau recollects thoughts of
places he stayed at before selecting Walden Pond, and quotes Roman
philosopher Cato's advice "consider buying a farm very carefully
before signing the papers". His possibilities included a nearby
Hollowell farm (where the "wife" unexpectedly decided she wanted to
keep the farm). Thoreau takes to the woods dreaming of an existence
free of obligations and full of leisure. He announces that he resides
far from social relationships that mail represents (post office) and
the majority of the chapter focuses on his thoughts while constructing
and living in his new home at Walden.
'Reading:' Thoreau discusses the benefits of classical literature,
preferably in the original Greek or Latin, and bemoans the lack of
sophistication in Concord evident in the popularity of unsophisticated
literature. He also loved to read books by world travelers. He yearns
for a time when each New England village will support "wise men" to
educate and thereby ennoble the population.
'Sounds:' Thoreau encourages the reader to be "forever on the alert"
and "looking always at what is to be seen". Although truth can be
found in literature, it can also be found in nature. In addition to
self-development, developing one's perception can also alleviate
boredom. Rather than "look[ing] abroad for amusement, to society and
the theatre", Thoreau's own life, including supposedly dull pastimes
like housework, becomes a source of amusement that "never ceases to be
novel". Likewise, he obtains pleasure in the sounds that fill his
cabin: church bells ringing, carriages rattling and rumbling, cows
lowing, whip-poor-wills singing, owls hooting, frogs croaking, and
cockerels crowing. "All sound heard at the greatest possible
distance," he contends "produces one and the same effect".
'Solitude:' Thoreau reflects on the feeling of solitude. He explains
how loneliness can occur even amongst companions if one's heart is not
open to them. Thoreau meditates on the pleasures of escaping society
and the petty things that society entails (gossip, fights, etc.). He
also reflects on his new companion, an old settler who arrives nearby
and an old woman with great memory ("memory runs back farther than
mythology"). Thoreau repeatedly reflects on the benefits of nature and
of his deep communion with it and states that the only "medicine he
needs is a draught of morning air".
'Visitors:' Thoreau talks about how he enjoys companionship (despite
his love for solitude) and always leaves three chairs ready for
visitors. The entire chapter focuses on the coming and going of
visitors, and how he has more comers in Walden than he did in the
city. He receives visits from those living or working nearby and gives
special attention to a French Canadian born woodsman named Alec
Thérien. Unlike Thoreau, Thérien cannot read or write and is described
as leading an "animal life". He compares Thérien to Walden Pond
itself. Thoreau then reflects on the women and children who seem to
enjoy the pond more than men, and how men are limited because their
lives are taken up.
'The Bean-Field:' Reflection on Thoreau's planting and his enjoyment
of this new job/hobby. He touches upon the joys of his environment,
the sights and sounds of nature, but also on the military sounds
nearby. The rest of the chapter focuses on his earnings and his
cultivation of crops (including how he spends just under fifteen
dollars on this).
'The Village:' The chapter focuses on Thoreau's reflections on the
journeys he takes several times a week to Concord, where he gathers
the latest gossip and meets with townsmen. On one of his journeys into
Concord, Thoreau is detained and jailed for his refusal to pay a poll
tax to the "state that buys and sells men, women, and children, like
cattle at the door of its senate-house".
'The Ponds:' In autumn, Thoreau discusses the countryside and writes
down his observations about the geography of Walden Pond and its
neighbors: Flint's Pond (or Sandy Pond), White Pond, and Goose Pond.
Although Flint's Pond is the largest, Thoreau's favorites are Walden
and White ponds, which he describes as lovelier than diamonds.
'Baker Farm:' While on an afternoon ramble in the woods, Thoreau gets
caught in a rainstorm and takes shelter in the dirty, dismal hut of
John Field, a penniless but hard-working Irish farmhand, and his wife
and children. Thoreau urges Field to live a simple yet independent and
fulfilling life in the woods, thereby freeing himself of employers and
creditors. However, the Irishman will not give up his aspirations of
luxury and the quest for the American dream.
'Higher Laws:' Thoreau discusses whether hunting wild animals and
eating meat is necessary. He concludes that the primitive, carnal
sensuality of humans drives them to kill and eat animals, and that a
person who transcends this propensity is superior to those who cannot.
(Thoreau eats fish and occasionally salt pork and woodchuck.) In
addition to vegetarianism, he lauds chastity, work, and teetotalism.
He also recognizes that Native Americans need to hunt and kill moose
for survival in "The Maine Woods", and eats moose on a trip to Maine
while he was living at Walden. Here is a list of the laws that he
mentions:
* One must love that of the wild just as much as one loves that of the
good.
* What men already know instinctively is true humanity.
* The hunter is the greatest friend of the animal which is hunted.
* No human older than an adolescent would wantonly murder any creature
which reveres its own life as much as the killer.
* If the day and the night make one joyful, one is successful.
* The highest form of self-restraint is when one can subsist not on
other animals, but of plants and crops cultivated from the earth.
'Brute Neighbors:' This chapter is a simplified version of one of
Thoreau's conversations with William Ellery Channing, who sometimes
accompanied Thoreau on fishing trips when Channing had come up from
Concord. The conversation is about a hermit (Thoreau) and a poet
(Channing) and how the poet is absorbed in the clouds while the hermit
is occupied with the more practical task of getting fish for dinner
and how in the end, the poet regrets his failure to catch fish. The
chapter also mentions Thoreau's interaction with a mouse that he lives
with, a scene in which an ant battles a smaller ant, and his frequent
encounters with cats.
'House-Warming:' After picking November berries in the woods, Thoreau
adds a chimney, and finally plasters the walls of his sturdy house to
stave off the cold of the oncoming winter. He also lays in a good
supply of firewood and expresses affection for wood and fire.
'Former Inhabitants; and Winter Visitors:' Thoreau tells the stories
of people who formerly lived in the vicinity of Walden Pond. Then, he
talks about a few of the visitors he receives during the winter: a
farmer, a woodchopper, and his best friend, the poet Ellery Channing.
'Winter Animals:' Thoreau amuses himself by watching wildlife during
the winter. He relates his observations of owls, hares, red squirrels,
mice, and various birds as they hunt, sing, and eat the scraps and
corn he put out for them. He also describes a fox hunt that passes by.
'The Pond in Winter:' Thoreau describes Walden Pond as it appears
during the winter. He says he has sounded its depths and located an
underground outlet. Then, he recounts how 100 laborers came to cut
great blocks of ice from the pond to be shipped to the Carolinas.
'Spring:' As spring arrives, Walden and the other ponds melt with
powerful thundering and rumbling. Thoreau enjoys watching the thaw,
and grows ecstatic as he witnesses the green rebirth of nature. He
watches the geese winging their way north, and a hawk playing by
itself in the sky. As nature is reborn, the narrator implies, so is
he.
'Conclusion:' In the final chapter, Thoreau criticizes conformity: "If
a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he
hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears,
however measured or far away." By doing so, men may find happiness and
self-fulfillment.
Themes
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'Walden' emphasizes the importance of solitude, contemplation, and
closeness to nature in transcending the "desperate" existence that, he
argues, is the lot of most people. The book is not a traditional
autobiography, but combines autobiography with a social critique of
contemporary Western culture's consumerist and materialist attitudes
and its distance from and destruction of nature. Thoreau's proximity
to Concord society and his admiration for classical literature suggest
that the book is not simply a criticism of society, but also an
attempt to engage creatively with the better aspects of contemporary
culture. There are signs of ambiguity, or an attempt to see an
alternative side of something common. Some of the major themes that
are present within the text are:
* Self-reliance: Thoreau constantly refuses to be in "need" of the
companionship of others. Though he realizes its significance and
importance, he thinks it unnecessary to 'always' be in search for it.
Self-reliance, to him, is economic and social and is a principle that
in terms of financial and interpersonal relations is more valuable
than anything. To Thoreau, self-reliance can be both spiritual as well
as economic. Self-reliance was a key tenet of transcendentalism,
famously expressed in Emerson's essay "Self-Reliance".
* Simplicity: Simplicity seems to be Thoreau's model for life.
Throughout the book, Thoreau constantly seeks to simplify his
lifestyle: he patches his clothes rather than buy new ones, he
minimizes his consumer activity, and relies on leisure time and on
himself for everything.
* Progress: In a world where everyone and everything is eager to
advance in terms of progress, Thoreau finds it stubborn and skeptical
to think that any outward improvement of life can bring inner peace
and contentment.
* The need for spiritual awakening: Spiritual awakening is the way to
find and realize the truths of life which are often buried under the
mounds of daily affairs. Thoreau holds the spiritual awakening to be a
quintessential component of life. It is the source from which all of
the other themes flow.
* Man as part of nature
* Nature and its reflection of human emotions
* The state as unjust and corrupt
* Meditation: Thoreau was an avid meditator and often spoke about the
benefits of meditating.
*Patience: Thoreau realizes that the methods he tries to employ at
Walden Pond will not be instituted in the near future. He does not
like compromise, so he must wait for change to occur. He does not go
into isolation in the woods of Massachusetts for over two years for
his own benefit. Thoreau wants to transform the world around him, but
understands that it will take time.
Style and analysis
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'Walden' has been the subject of many scholarly articles. Book
reviewers, critics, scholars, and many more have published literature
on Thoreau's 'Walden'.
Thoreau carefully recounts his time in the woods through his writing
in 'Walden'. Critics have thoroughly analyzed the different writing
styles that Thoreau uses. Critic Nicholas Bagnall writes that
Thoreau's observations of nature are "lyrical" and "exact". Another
critic, Henry Golemba, asserts that the writing style of 'Walden' is
very natural. Thoreau employs various styles of writing where his
words are both intricate and simple at the same time. His word choice
conveys a certain mood. For instance, when Thoreau describes the
silence of nature, the reader may feel that serene moment as well.
Thoreau continues to connect back to nature throughout the book
because he wants to depict what he experienced and saw.
Many scholars have compared Thoreau to fellow transcendentalist writer
Ralph Waldo Emerson. Although Emerson was 14 years his senior, much of
Thoreau's writing was influenced by Emerson. Critic John Brooks Moore
examined the relationship between Thoreau and Emerson and the effects
it had on their respective works. Moore claims that Thoreau did not
simply mimic Emerson's work, but he was actually the more dominant one
in the relationship. Thoreau has learned from Emerson and some
"Emersonism" can be found in his works, but Thoreau's work is distinct
from Emerson's. Many critics have also seen the influence of Thomas
Carlyle (a great influence on Emerson), particularly in Thoreau's use
of an extended clothing metaphor, which Carlyle had used in 'Sartor
Resartus' (1831).
Scholars have recognized 'Walden' use of biblical allusions. Such
allusions are useful tools to convince readers because the Bible is
seen as a principal book of truth. According to scholar Judith
Saunders, the signature biblical allusion identified in the book is,
"Walden was dead and is alive again." This is almost verbatim from
Luke 15.11-32. Thoreau is personifying Walden Pond to further the
story relevant to the Bible. He compares the process of death and
rebirth of the pond to self-transformation in humans.
Reception
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'Walden' enjoyed some success upon its release, but still took five
years to sell 2,000 copies, and then went out of print until Thoreau's
death in 1862. Despite its slow beginnings, later critics have praised
it as an American classic that explores natural simplicity, harmony,
and beauty. The American poet, Robert Frost, wrote of Thoreau, "In one
book ... he surpasses everything we have had in America".
It is often assumed that critics initially ignored 'Walden', and that
those who reviewed the book were evenly split or slightly more
negative than positive in their assessment of it. But, researchers
have shown that 'Walden' actually was "more favorably and widely
received by Thoreau's contemporaries than hitherto suspected". Of the
66 initial reviews that have been found so far, 46 "were strongly
favorable". Some reviews were rather superficial, merely recommending
the book or predicting its success with the public; others were more
lengthy, detailed, and nuanced with both positive and negative
comments. Positive comments included praise for Thoreau's
independence, practicality, wisdom, "manly simplicity", and
fearlessness. Less than three weeks after the book's publication,
Thoreau's mentor, Ralph Waldo Emerson, proclaimed, "All American kind
are delighted with 'Walden' as far as they have dared to say."
On the other hand, the terms "quaint" or "eccentric" appeared in over
half of the book's initial reviews. Other terms critical of Thoreau
included selfish, strange, impractical, privileged (or "manor born"),
and misanthropic. One review compared and contrasted Thoreau's form of
living to communism, probably not in the sense of Marxism, but instead
of communal living or religious communism. While valuing freedom from
possessions, Thoreau was not communal in the sense of practicing
sharing or of embracing community. So, communism "is better than our
hermit's method of getting rid of encumbrance".
In contrast to Thoreau's "manly simplicity", nearly twenty years after
Thoreau's death Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson judged
Thoreau's endorsement of living alone in natural simplicity, apart
from modern society, to be a mark of effeminacy, calling it "womanish
solicitude; for there is something unmanly, something almost
dastardly" about the lifestyle. Poet John Greenleaf Whittier
criticized what he perceived as the message in 'Walden' that man
should lower himself to the level of a woodchuck and walk on four
legs. He said: "Thoreau's 'Walden' is a capital reading, but very
wicked and heathenish ... After all, for me, I prefer walking on two
legs". Author Edward Abbey criticized Thoreau's ideas and experiences
at Walden in detail throughout his response to 'Walden' called "Down
the River with Thoreau", written in 1980.
Today, despite these criticisms, 'Walden' stands as one of America's
most celebrated works of literature. John Updike wrote of 'Walden', "A
century and a half after its publication, 'Walden' has become such a
totem of the back-to-nature, preservationist, anti-business,
civil-disobedience mindset, and Thoreau so vivid a protester, so
perfect a crank and hermit saint, that the book risks being as revered
and unread as the Bible." The American psychologist B. F. Skinner
wrote that he carried a copy of 'Walden' with him in his youth, and
eventually wrote 'Walden Two' in 1945, a fictional utopia about 1,000
members who live together in a Thoreau-inspired community.
Kathryn Schulz has accused Thoreau of hypocrisy, misanthropy and being
sanctimonious based on his writings in 'Walden', although this
criticism has been perceived as highly selective.
Video games
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The National Endowment for the Arts in 2012 bestowed Tracy Fullerton,
game designer and professor at the University of Southern California's
Game Innovation Lab, with a $40,000 grant to create, based on the
book, a first person, open world video game called 'Walden, a game',
in which players "inhabit an open, three-dimensional game world that
will simulate the geography and environment of Walden Woods". The game
production was also supported by grants from the National Endowment
for the Humanities and was part of the Sundance New Frontier Story Lab
in 2014. The game was released to critical acclaim on July 4, 2017,
celebrating both the day that Thoreau went down to the pond to begin
his experiment and the 200th anniversary of Thoreau's birth. It was
nominated for the Off-Broadway Award for Best Indie Game at the New
York Game Awards 2018.
Digitization and scholarship efforts
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Digital Thoreau, a collaboration among the State University of New
York at Geneseo, the Thoreau Society, and the Walden Woods Project,
has developed a fluid text edition of 'Walden' across the different
versions of the work to help readers trace the evolution of Thoreau's
classic work across seven stages of revision from 1846 to 1854.
Within any chapter of 'Walden', readers can compare up to seven
manuscript versions with each other, with the Princeton University
Press edition, and consult critical notes drawn from Thoreau scholars,
including Ronald Clapper's dissertation 'The Development of Walden: A
Genetic Text' (1967) and Walter Harding's 'Walden: An Annotated
Edition' (1995). Ultimately, the project will provide a space for
readers to discuss Thoreau in the margins of his texts.
Influence
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* The Dutch writer and psychiatrist Frederik van Eeden used the ideas
from this book to create his own vision, back to the nature, at the
commune Walden in the Netherlands in 1898.
* In the 1948 book 'Walden Two' by behavioral psychologist B. F.
Skinner the experimental Walden Two Community is mentioned as having
the benefits of living in a place like Thoreau's Walden, but "with
company".
* Jonas Mekas' 1968 film 'Walden' is loosely inspired by the book.
* The film All That Heaven Allows (1955) is clearly influenced by
Thoreau, with the protagonist Cary Scott (Jane Wyman) reading lines
from Walden.
* Jean Craighead George's 'My Side of the Mountain' trilogy (1959)
draws heavily from themes expressed in 'Walden'. Protagonist Sam
Gribley is nicknamed "Thoreau" by an English teacher he befriends.
* Shane Carruth's second film 'Upstream Color' (2013) features
'Walden' as a central item of its story, and draws heavily on the
themes expressed by Thoreau.
* In 1962, William Melvin Kelley titled his first novel, 'A Different
Drummer', after a famous quote from 'Walden': "If a man does not keep
pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different
drummer." The quote, as well as another stanza from the book, appears
as an epigraph in Kelley's novel, which echoes Thoreau's theme of
individualism.
* The name of the gay men's culture and news magazine 'Drum', which
began publication in 1964, was inspired by the same quote, which
appeared in every edition.
* The 1989 film 'Dead Poets Society' heavily features an excerpt from
'Walden' as a motif in the plot.
* The Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish paraphrased the quote
"Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth" on their 2011
song "The Crow, the Owl and the Dove" from the studio album
'Imaginaerum'. They also make several references to 'Walden' on their
eighth studio album 'Endless Forms Most Beautiful' of 2015, including
in the song titled "My Walden" and in the song "Alpenglow".
* The investment research firm Morningstar, Inc. was named for the
last sentence in 'Walden' by founder and CEO Joe Mansueto, and the "O"
in the company's logo is shaped like a rising sun.
* In the 2015 video game 'Fallout 4', which takes place in
Massachusetts, there exists a location called Walden Pond, where the
player can listen to an automated tourist guide detail Thoreau's
experience living in the wilderness. At the location there stands a
small house which is said to be the same house Thoreau built and
stayed in.
* Phoebe Bridgers references the book in her song "Smoke Signals".
* In 2018, MC Lars and Mega Ran released a song called "Walden" where
they discuss the book and its influence.
* In the 1997 episode "Weight Gain 4000" of 'South Park', Eric Cartman
"writes" a prize-winning essay copied from 'Walden', replacing
Thoreau's name with his own.
* Professor Richard Primack from Boston University utilizes
information from Thoreau's 'Walden' in climate change research.
* It is suggested that the genre of nature writing in American
literature is derived from Thoreau's 'Walden'.
* Austin Chinn, editor of the trilogy version of Ring of Bright Water
by Gavin Maxwell, suggests that Maxwell may have been influenced by
Walden when writing the best-seller.
External links
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*
* [
https://archive.org/details/waldenorlifeinwo1854thor 'Walden'] -
Digitized copy of the first edition from the Internet Archive.
*
*
*
* '[
http://thoreau.eserver.org/walden00.html Walden: An Annotated
Edition]' (hyperlinked TOC, footnotes and scholarly commentary). R.
Lenat (ed.). Thoreau Society and Iowa State University project.
License
=========
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Original Article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walden
