Henry David Thoreau
Walden & Civil Disobedience
Henry David Thoreau
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Henry David Thoreau
• 1817-1862
• Schoolteacher, essayist, poet
• Most famous for Walden (pg 204)
and Civil Disobedience (pg 212)
• Influenced environmental
movement
• Supporter of abolitionism
Background information about Walden
A reproduction of Thoreau's cabin with a statue of Thoreau
Background information about Walden
• The book details Thoreau's sojourn in a cabin near Walden Pond,
amidst woodland owned by his friend and mentor Ralph Waldo
Emerson, near Concord, Massachusetts.
• Thoreau did not intend to live as a hermit, for he received visitors
and returned their visits. Instead, he hoped to isolate himself from
society in order to gain a more objective understanding of it.
• Simple living and self-sufficiency were Thoreau's other goals, and
the whole project was inspired by transcendentalist philosophy,
which was one of the key ideas of the American Romantic Period.
As Thoreau made clear in his book, his cabin was not in wilderness
but at the edge of town, not far from his family home.
Synopsis (contents)
• Economy
– This is the first chapter and also the longest by far. Thoreau
begins by outlining his project: a two-year and two-month stay at
a crude cabin in the woods near Walden Pond. He does this, he
says, in order to illustrate the spiritual benefits of a simplified
lifestyle. He easily supplies the four necessities of life (food,
shelter, clothing, and fuel). He meticulously records his
expenditures and earnings, demonstrating his understanding of
"economy," as he builds his house and buys and grows food. For a
home and freedom, he spends a mere $28.13.
• Complementary Verses
– This chapter consists entirely of a poem, "The Pretensions of
Poverty," by seventeenth-century English poet Thomas Carew.
The poem criticizes those who think that their poverty gives
them unearned moral and intellectual superiority.
Synopsis (contents)
• Where I Lived, and What I Lived For
– After playing with the idea of buying a farm, Thoreau describes his
cabin's location. Then he explains that he took up his abode at Walden
Woods so as 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."
• Reading
– Thoreau provides discourse on the benefits of reading classical
literature (preferably in the original Greek or Latin) and bemoans the
lack of sophistication in Concord, manifested in the popularity of
popular literature. He yearns for a utopian time when each New
England village will support "wise men" to educate and thereby
ennoble the population.
Synopsis (contents)
• Sounds
– Thoreau opens this chapter by warning against relying too much on
literature as a means of transcendence. Instead, one should experience
life for oneself. Thus, after describing his cabin's beautiful natural
surroundings and his casual housekeeping habits, Thoreau goes on to
criticize the train whistle that interrupts his reverie. To him, the railroad
symbolizes the destruction of the good old pastoral way of life. Following
is a description of the sounds audible from his cabin: the church bells
ringing, carriages rattling and rumbling, cows lowing, whip-poor-wills
singing, owls hooting, frogs croaking, and cockerels crowing.
• Solitude
– Thoreau rhapsodizes about the beneficial effects of living solitary and
close to nature. He loves to be alone, for "I never found the companion
that was so companionable as solitude," and he is never lonely as long as
he is close to nature. He believes there is no great value to be had by
rubbing shoulders with the mass of humanity.
Synopsis (contents)
• Visitors
– Thoreau writes about the visitors to his cabin. Among the 25 or 30
visitors is a young French-Canadian woodchopper, Alec Therien,
whom Thoreau idealizes as approaching the ideal man, and a
runaway slave, whom Thoreau helps on his journey to freedom in
Canada.
• The Bean-Field
– Thoreau relates his efforts to cultivate two and a half acres of beans.
He plants in June and spends his summer mornings weeding the
field with a hoe. He sells most of the crop, and his small profit of
$8.71 covers his needs.
• The Village
– Thoreau visits the small town of Concord every day or two to hear
the In late summer, he is arrested for refusing to pay federal taxes,
but is released the next day. He explains that he refuses to pay taxes
to a government that supports slavery.
Synopsis (contents)
• 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 but independent and fulfilling life
in the woods, thereby freeing himself of employers and creditors.
But the Irishman won't give up his dreams of luxury, which is the
American dream.
• Higher Laws
– Thoreau discusses whether hunting wild animals and eating meat is
good. He concludes that the primitive, animal side of humans drives
them to kill and eat animals, and that a person who transcends this
propensity is superior to those who don't. (Thoreau eats fish.) In
addition to vegetarianism, he lauds chastity, work, and teetotalism.
Synopsis (contents)
• Brute Neighbors
– Thoreau briefly discusses the many wild animals that are his
neighbors at Walden. A description of the nesting habits of
partridges is followed by a fascinating account of a massive battle
between red and black ants. Three of the combatants he takes
into his cabin and examines them under a microscope as the
black ant kills the two smaller red ones. Later, Thoreau takes his
boat and tries to follow a teasing loon about the pond.
• House-Warming
– After picking November berries in the woods, Thoreau bestirs
himself to add a chimney and plaster the walls of his hut in order
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.
Synopsis (contents)
• Former Inhabitants; and Winter Visitors
– Thoreau relates the stories of people who formerly lived in the
vicinity of Walden Pond. Then he talks about the few visitors he
receives during the winter: a farmer, a woodchopper, and a 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.
Synopsis (contents)
• Spring
– As spring arrives, Walden and the other ponds melt with stentorian
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. He departs
Walden on September 8, 1847.
• Conclusion
– This final chapter is more passionate and urgent than its predecessors.
In it, he 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 these things, men may find happiness and selffulfillment.
Themes
Walden emphasizes the importance of selfreliance, solitude, contemplation, and
closeness to nature in transcending the
"desperate" existence that, he argues, is the
lot of most humans.
The End