Besides being one of the most esteemed writers of his time, Henry David Thoreau may have been more of a philosopher than most have come to know him. In his two year stay in basic solitude in a cabin in the middle of the woods, Thoreau wrote “Walden”, an account of his time there. In this narrative, Thoreau describes his experiences, and his theories as to why some of these things may occur.
A specific point in the acclaimed piece where the readers thinking takes a shift from more just reading to theorizing is actually very early on. A section that has stuck with me since the very beginning of reading this long, somewhat grueling piece is when Thoreau describes people’s inherited stations in life as a “misfortune”(Thoreau). Thoreau begins by explaining how inheriting luxuries, such as “farms, houses, barns, cattle, and housing tools” are actually more of a burden than they may appear to be (Thoreau). He explains that being born into this type of apparent wealth can essentially provide someone an identity, before they are old enough to create one for themselves.
This thought takes the reader up one, or several levels of abstraction, now thinking that a person’s ancestry actually dictates who they ought to become. This move made by Thoreau is seemingly necessary to have the reader visualize even further their station in life while embarking on this reading and understanding why he chose to engage in his experiment. Thoughts that run through my own mind as I skim this section are: “If my parents weren’t the way they are would I still be the person I am today?” and “Would I have been able to survive and prosper having been put into a drastically different situation upon being grown into my teenage years?”.
As many of us can agree, we tend to inherit certain traits from our lineage. For example, my mother and I share a similar sense of style and ways of thinking, sometimes even thinking the same things concurrently. Meanwhile, I like to joke that I inherit all of my unwanted traits, like poor eyesight and a bad temper from my father’s side. Whether behavioral or genetic, there is no question that our parents, as well as grandparents and so on, contribute to the people we are. I believe this begs the question even further, up even one more level of abstraction, that if we weren’t born into these circumstances would we still behave the same? A 2013 article in the Smithsonian Magazine written by Abigail Tucker poses the question, “Are babies born good?”. Essentially, this article illustrates the long-standing debate of nature versus nurture. In detailing several “infant mortality” studies done by the Yale Infant Cognition Center, the conclusion is made that children are actually born with a sense of what is good and bad; However, it is the environment they are surrounded in that teaches them how to apply that thinking (Tucker). So, the final level of abstraction loops us back to the question, does our station in life define who we are and who we become? Also, can we ever change that station in life to become someone else?