Category: Schacht Fall 2018

In Chapter 2 of Walden, Thoreau describes his readiness to embark upon his “experiment” at the pond: “To enjoy these advantages I was ready to carry it on; like Atlas, to take the world on my shoulders,—I never heard what compensation he received for that,—and do all those things which had no other motive or excuse but that I might pay for it and be unmolested in my possession of it.”  When Thoreau comments, “I never heard what compensation he received for that,” he expands his telling of his feelings before relocating to Walden Pond into the theoretical realm.  Thoreau was a renowned abolitionist.  During his time, slavery played an immense economic role in both the North and South: “cash crops” like cotton were invaluable to the Southern economy, and Northern factories relied heavily on them as well.  Perhaps the “world” of the industrializing United States economy was built on the shoulders of slaves—receiving no compensation for their toil.  Atlas, whom Thoreau directly references, is a Titan in Greek mythology, forced to bear the world upon his shoulders after the Titans were defeated by the Olympians.  Thoreau theorizes that some sort of compensation or greater acknowledgement at the least is due to Atlas—literally for holding up the world we live in.  As readers, we can expand this and read it as a commentary on the peculiar institution during Thoreau’s life.  For the important role slaves held in building the “world” of the American economy, they deserve their freedom and a just compensation at minimum, Thoreau appears to argue.  By inserting this short but substantial commentary on Atlas, Thoreau opens up a whole layer of theory surrounding society—which he has no shortage of problems with already.

Picture this: A sole child sits beside a fireplace hearth, bangs plastered to her greasy forehead. Two sticky hands (probably coated with flakes of glue from school earlier that day), tinker with a mountain of multicolored Lego blocks. The only sound comes from the clinks of plastic blocks, the tapping of rain on the living room window, and the faint sound of the radio playing in the kitchen. Despite playing in solitude, the child giggles with excitement.

Flash forward fifteen years, the same girl, is in a room packed with her peers; A dimly lit room buzzes with the sound of wide-eyed, babbling ‘baby-adults’ (otherwise known as college students). Red cups in hand, they converse-or rather attempt to, over the blaring music. Others give up, and choose to simply sing or dance along. Shoes slosh and stumble in beer puddles distributed among the concrete floor. There is a subtle stench of sweat throughout the room. Luckily it isn’t noticeable over the aggressive jolts of the habitual shoulder shove and collision.

Whether it be during the night, or during the day, the typical college student may seem as if they are never truly alone. After experiencing both individually focused, and socially charged periods in my life, I have come to the conclusion that loneliness is relative. Continue reading “The Landscape of Loneliness”

When documenting his time living by himself in a self-made home on Walden pond, Henry David Thoreau decided to do much more than simply transcribe events in a linear, logical order. He wanted to engage his audience and force them think about the society they lived in. To do this,  Thoreau would often take his own experience and use it as a stepping stone for much bigger concepts and observations. While there are many instances throughout Henry David Thoreau’s Walden where he clearly and smoothly transitions from experience to theory, one of the most interesting and thought provoking examples occurs in the fifth paragraph of  Solitude.

In this passage, Thoreau discusses the time he spent alone in the woods and how it affected him.  While many of his peers probably expected him to feel lonely and isolated from the world during his experiment in the woods, Thoreau actually observed that, during his time on Walden pond, company was all around him.  Earlier in the passage, he talks of even the pine needles showing him sympathy and befriending him; Thoreau is making a claim that no one is ever truly alone and that loneliness is all relative.  When one takes the time to see and appreciate the life around them,  it is impossible to be lonely. Company isn’t just the presence of other people, it’s the presence of nature and one’s self realization.

What finally inspires Thoreau to move up one level of abstraction is the skeptics who constantly ask him if he ever felt lonesome, and Thoreau responds with asking a question of his own.  What does it truly mean to be lonely? When looking at our planet as a whole, and even the entire universe, in a sense we are all lonely. We are millions, if not billions, of light-years away from the closest non-human organism in our solar system. The human race is indescribably distant from other species in the known universe, and yet people are surprised when Thoreau, who is only a few miles away from the closest town, maintains that he never felt lonesome. He presents his experience living “alone” in forest to introduce the theory true enlightenment is not found in the company of like-minded human individuals, such as a town hall or grocery store, but in the company of what he calls “…the perennial source of our life… as the willow stands near the water and sends out its roots in that direction.”  I found this whole passage utterly fascinating because it challenges everything about the very idea of solitude. If Thoreau can rejoice in the simplicity of solitude and nature, why couldn’t I do the very same thing with my own life? Somehow Thoreau managed to reach me as an individual while talking about something has grand and encompassing as the entire Milky Way galaxy. A task not many would have been able to accomplish.

Thoreau’s transition in this passage is necessary in that he not only needs the reader to understand him and his actions at Walden pond, but he needs the reader to identify with the larger ideas at play in his book.  The first step is the reader grasping why Thoreau’s solitude can be seen as a pure way of life, the second is them realizing the trappings of modern society and how one can live away from it successfully. If Thoreau’s personal experiences are how lived off the land for two years, he must transition into theoretical thinking to explain why he did this. Many would agree that it’s an author’s purpose to speak to his audience through their work, so it is vital that he makes such a transition as the one he makes in “Solitude.” Without this new level of abstraction, his tale could be seen as nothing more than an autobiography, but with it, Thoreau can give his reader reason to stop and reflect so that they may enrich their lives; just as living on Walden pond has enriched his.

In the first paragraph of Henry David Thoreau’s piece of Solitude, he explains how he is finally starting to accept himself in his new surroundings. He uses a lot of imaginative words to explain the scenery and grab the readers attention and have them focus and theorize what his life is like. Even though walden has felt this sort of “solitude”, you see him finally come together and start to feel good in his own skin. A good example of his imaginative words would be when he states “….The bullfrogs trump to usher in the night, and the note of the whippoorwill is borne on the rippling wind from over the water. Sympathy with the fluttering alder and poplar leaves almost takes away my breath; yet, like the lake, my serenity is rippled but not ruffled.” It also makes you take the time to imagine his life and the pond, and theorize what his life may be like and obstacles that he had and has overcome.

Throughout all of Thoreau’s pieces about Walden, he also explains how his life is and how he goes about his everyday life. He uses descriptive words to help you theorize his obstacles, and help better understand his situation. He tells us about all the visitors that come and go in his home, even when he is not present. In the second paragraph you can conclude that Walden is not very happy with his visitors. He explains “….One has peeled a willow wand, woven it into a ring, and dropped it on my table. I could always tell if visitors had called in my absence, either by the bended twigs or grass, or the print of their shoes, and generally of what sex or age or quality they were by some slight trace left.” Walden knows when his things and belongings have been tampered with and by the usage of language you can tell that he is not all the way surprised and ecstatic that these people have come into his home and disorganized his accouterments.

From end to end of Solitude, Thoreau justifies that Walden would rather be alone than converse with any of his visitors. Explains most likely why Walden lives in such a secluded area and away from all of his peers, family, and friends. Walden feels as though he may be superior to other people, especially the men when he states “…Sometimes, when I compare myself with other men, it seems as if I were more favored by the gods than they, beyond any deserts that I am conscious of; as if I had a warrant and surety at their hands which my fellows have not, and were especially guided and guarded…”

Through the whole of Thoreau’s pieces, you can tell that he is very focused on the idea of loneliness but by the end finds I sense of acceptance with the world and with himself. He knows and realizes that he doesn’t need anyone to confide in other than himself and feels content with his lonely life with only himself.

I’m going to be completely honest. There were several times when reading Walden that I was completely lost. I did not understand what was happening, then I would come to class and everyone would have gotten so much out of the reading. So when it came time to write this post I really struggled. I decided to look through my notes once more and find a time that I switched from reading to theorizing and how that affected my reading for the rest of the time. As I read through my notes there was one common trend that I kept jotting down. That trend was Thoreau’s pride in his freedom.

The passage that I felt pushed me to theorizing the most was in “Where I Lived, and What I Lived For” paragraphs eight through twelve. Paragraph eight it describes Thoreau building his own cabin. He feels it is his creation. He is very proud of it and feels it is worthy of a god to spend the night in. When I read this passage, I thought about the Christian God and his creation of the world. God took pride in his creation. I know not everyone agrees with this, but the view that Thoreau is expressing is one of pride just like God shows in the creation story. It is something of his own that Thoreau feels is perfect, just like God said the world was perfect.

In paragraph nine Thoreau discusses his previous home. He explains that his previous home was “suggestive somewhat as a picture in outlines”. This gives the imagery of an artist still working on his masterpiece. Comparing this to his house in the woods where he says how it was fit for a god shows that he feels his new home is perfect and complete. Finally, in paragraph twelve Thoreau talks about the pasture being enough for his imagination. He enjoys his freedom in the woods immensely. Due to this sense of freedom he feels that “There are none happy in the world but beings who enjoy freely a vast horizon”.

Thoreau’s pride in his home made me theorize about how we should take pride in the things we do. If we do not feel pride then we will easily become discouraged and question the worth of anything we do. If we simply show some pride in things we accomplished then we will be happier and feel our life have more purpose. When we do things on our own we feel free. We are not a trapped bird, but a free bird flying even if we never leave our little home.

Although my blog post may not be like others I take pride in it. I learned that we should be proud of the things we do on our own and the freedom it brings. Living at college is a transition, and to be honest some days I feel homesick and wonder why I am here. Then I think about where I was before college in my life and where I am now . Looking at this I realize how proud I am of the choices that I have made in my new found freedom.

In paragraphs 14 of Where I Lived and What I Lived For from Thoreau’s novel Walden, he discusses being aware, a topic we recently talked about in class. In Thoreau’s opinion, “the morning, which is the most memorable season of the day, is the awakening hour.” What he means by this is that in the morning, when the Nature that is awake and alive, makes him aware of himself, his thoughts, and the life that is happening around him. He begins telling the reader about how he takes his morning bath in the pond, as “a religious exercise,” in order to renew himself. He says that “the faint hum of a mosquito” is more impressive than “any trumpet that ever sang of fame.” Being surrounded by Nature allows Thoreau to be consciously aware of his surroundings and his self. Thoreau says that the morning was cosmical; it made him feel connected to something bigger than himself and his surroundings. Thoreau states that “there is least somnolence in us” meaning that in the morning, for a brief amount of time, we are fully conscious because the part that is always asleep, finally wakes up. He makes the switch toward the end of paragraph 14 by asking the reader “Why is it that men give so poor an account of their day if they had not been slumbering?” Thoreau answers this question by stating that “The millions are awake enough for physical labor; but only one in a million is awake enough for effective intellectual exertion,” and that “To be awake is to be alive.” Thoreau is implying that nobody is ever truly awake, rather we are all just sleepwalking. Thoreau makes this shift because he wants to wake people up, so to speak, and show them that they are sleeping while life happens around them. It’s a necessary move because Thoreau is trying to show the reader how just a simple bath in the morning was able to wake him up. Thoreau even tells the reader the he has been asleep, since he has never seen a man who is truly awake because he has not been conscious enough to see him. He opens the paragraph up with his daily ritual to get the reader to relate and then asks the question to make the reader think about what he is theorizing. I find it interesting that Thoreau uses a question to make the switch because it is a clever way to engage the audience and actually make them consider what he’s really saying.

Walden, by Henry David Thoreau, is packed with lots of advice, criticism, and deeper meaning. It can be hard to unpack exactly what Thoreau is saying, especially when he seems to contradict himself around every corner. Despite that, an important theme that stood out to me was wisdom and the search for inner fulfillment.

In “Conclusion”, Thoreau talks about the boundaries set up by rail fences and stone walls that seem to inhibit people from digging deeper into themselves. In the first paragraph, Thoreau is challenging us as readers to take a look at the boundaries we have set for ourselves and to go beyond them. Our lives don’t have to be one specific way and we always have room for development, growth, and change. This move from reading to theorizing seems necessary because all throughout Walden, Thoreau is trying to show us as readers that we should question and challenge our societal roles and find our own sense of solitude and fulfillment.

Thoreau wants us to go and find our own Walden Pond so that we aren’t stuck in the same cycles of complacency and ignorance that society can create for us. We have to go and live our lives through experience and gaining wisdom. Thoreau wants us to question what we know and how we act in order to make choices to be better and do better.

This wisdom can’t be found in college, according to Thoreau and is unique to each individual. We must gain it through the experience of truly living. In paragraph 2, Thoreau encourages us to “open new channels of thought” so that we can gain new wisdom and can go beyond boundaries society (and ourselves) place on us.

 

 

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?

Henry David Thoreau is a very well known author and philosopher with many different works familiar to people around the world. One of his works, Walden, tells of his experiences when moving to and living in a house/cabin by Walden Pond. Throughout this book, he discusses various different things that make us as readers stop to theorize about what he is saying and how it can be applied to us. I will be choosing one passage that I think captures this idea of the reader stopping and theorizing as perfectly as possible. 

The passage chosen for this blogpost is from the chapter “Where I Lived, And What I Lived For”, and consists of paragraph 21. In that paragraph, Thoreau discusses the idea of focusing on life, and not on things that are fake or do not matter. I think this passage works well for a variety of reasons, one of which is the fact that it is a very deep, logical passage of text. This happens in particular in the beginning line of paragraph 21:

“Shams and delusions are esteemed for soundest truths, while reality is fabulous. If men would steadily observe realities only, and not allow themselves to be deluded, life, to compare it with such things as we know, would be like a fairy tale and the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments. If we respected only what is inevitable and has a right to be, music and poetry would resound along the streets.”

Basically, Thoreau is stating that we as people focus too much on superficial and unimportant things, and that it severely limits us. This makes us, the readers, think because it is still a very relevant idea, so much so that I myself can connect it to my relationship with technology. What I mean by this is, the modern equivalent of this idea would be the fact that so many people are preoccupied with their phones, laptops, tvs and more that they, or we, limit them/ourselves because we’re not looking at life as it truly is. This leads me into why it is necessary–it is necessary because it will almost always be relevant. It is a lesson to be learned and taught by many, in the sense that it is a very important idea. It is also necessary because people will always choose to focus on the “easier” things to handle in life, as opposed to the things they need to. Thoreau is basically “calling out” us as a society, showing us our issues and how we can resolve them in a pretty simple way. Not everybody will see this or learn from this though, which is why it is necessary–it will always be there to learn from.

Another good example from paragraph 21 would be this line:

“Children, who play life, discern its true law and relations more clearly than men, who fail to live it worthily, but who think that they are wiser by experience, that is, by failure.”

Thoreau is pretty much throwing shade at adults, saying that their children have a better understanding of life than they do. This works because it makes the reader think about whether this is actually true or not–And I have to kind of believe that it is. It criticizes adults who don’t seem to focus on life or really care that it’s happening by basically saying their children know it better than they do. This really allows the reader to think about the way they go about seeing their life, as a metaphorical “child” or “adult”, and helps them see the issues with how they view it. Thoreau also makes this feel like a necessary spot to stop reading and to start theorizing because of the way he uses his criticism. He is basically allowing the reader to really think about their life through use of criticism in its simplest form–comparing one thing to another in an obviously critical way. By saying children know better than adults about how life should be, he effectively makes this a necessary area for theorizing because it causes the person reading to think if they are really less well-versed in life than a child, and effectively leads them to try and make changes to themselves and their unfocused views on life.

In Henry David Thoreau’s book Walden, the author details his life in the wilderness in a narrative way which is meant to evoke thought and reasoning in the reader. Thoreau’s purpose in doing so is to attempt to convince the reader that his lifestyle has merit and value over that of ordinary city life for a number of reasons. Thoreau approaches this task not by disparaging the people who choose to lead traditional and common lives, but by pointing out the many injustices done to those people by the system they willingly make themselves a part of. Throughout his book, the transcendentalist utilizes a variety of techniques and methods to make his points to the reader. Notably, Thoreau makes the shift from his experiences to theory. By using his time at Walden Pond as anecdotal evidence, Thoreau makes a compelling argument for his lifestyle based off of his experiences. One example of this which stands out above others is in paragraph thirteen of Walden’s Conclusion.

Here, Thoreau’s sum argument is well encapsulated in a single paragraph. His appeal to the reader comes not as a demand or cries for change, but simply a request to view their world through his perspective. Thoreau cannot force anyone to share his unusual world view, but he can show others its value based on what he and they have mutually experienced. Thoreau argues that we should not hate our lives no matter how meager, dirty, or uncomfortable they may become. He proposes instead that we live our lives to the best of our abilities and appreciate the gift of life itself. He points out that no matter how amazing, wealthy, and luxurious a life can be, someone will always be able to find faults in it if they are to look for them. Having used his own life as proof, Thoreau tells us that we may find good times and fond memories to be made even in the darkest of places. As he writes:

“It is life near the bone where it is sweetest. You are defended from being a trifler. No man loses ever on a lower level by magnanimity on a higher. Superfluous wealth can buy superfluities only. Money is not required to buy one necessary of the soul.”

This is where the move to theory is made. Thoreau uses the example of the poorest townspeople and the freedom that they enjoy to show the reader what is possible if they cast aside their desires for wealth and excess. In doing so, he shows his readers the transcendental value of separation from traditional society and its trappings. An interesting if difficult way to view success and happiness.

Thoreau uses his observations on what we value and what he has voluntarily lived without to make a necessary and powerful statement about what people should seek out in their lives. Pursuit of vanity, wealth, power, and money have no limits. To set one’s life around the acquisition of these things means they will never succeed because they will never have enough. When we die having spent our life in pursuit of the superficial, we die unfulfilled. According to Henry David Thoreau, there is more to living than can be measured in stuff and things. This is Thoreau’s message. That true happiness and appreciation of life is a state of mind which is bound to no aspect of society. Be it class, amount of holdings, or station, all can achieve that state of mind we want if we look past its typical requisites and realize what an amazing thing it is to be truly happy with what we have.