My Critique for Thoreau’s Walden. HUM2210
Patrick Scott Bell
GRP1 - Thoreau
HUM 2210
May 29, 2012
In the writing of Walden Thoreau evaluates the superficial life his neighbors dwell in, versus the nostalgic and often self reflecting life he himself aspires towards. Through out Walden Thoreau communicates with his reader through the use of parables. Often making statements which in themselves pose questions. Thoreau addresses how we view our possessions. How we understand our surroundings, and how we equate wealth to materialism and physicality rather than knowledge and spiritual reflection.
I personally see myself in agreement with Thoreau’s understanding of life, as for my classmates, I am hesitant to judge. Even if they experience life differently, such as the way Thoreau explains the New Englanders; I am able to grow as a person by listening and learning from them. However for this assignments intent and purposes, I feel that most of my classmates mirror the New Englanders. This could be due to a lack of experience leading to a lack in purpose. Often when people feel a lack of purpose or direction they gravitate towards their peers, and become as Thoreau might state, part of the herd.
One portion of Walden that I found intriguing was his critique on poets. Elaborating on their unique use of spiritual reflection as a means of wealth. He states,
“I have frequently seen a poet withdraw, having enjoyed the most valuable part of a farm, while the crusty farmer supposed that he had got a few wild apples only. Why, the owner does not know it for many years when a poet has put his farm in rhyme, the most admirable kind of invisible fence, has fairly impounded it, milked it, skimmed it, and got all the cream, and left the farmer only the skimmed milk.”
This, I feel is best comparison of how Thoreau wishes society viewed it’s possessions versus how they currently do. He believes the New Englanders see the world at face value, or in a physical state. They care about what their property;s are worth, rather than their true beauty and importance, what the objects mean. Our possessions hold a sense of being, a human like quality of existence, that only someone as the poet might see.
However, I must disagree and possibly to Thoreau’s enjoyment; I don’t feel as though it is out of the New Englander’s grasp, nor do I see it as their fault. How they feel is only a reflection of their surroundings. While reading the passage a sense of nostalgia rose over me. I felt as if I was roaming through the landscapes as Thoreau described. With each verse deeper into the wooded fog. As children we imagine, in a playful sense, landscapes, people and imaginary beings. We hold these hallucinations as something much greater than fact. They are a state of being, far beyond that of reality, in a sense they are celestial. As we grow with age we move away from this state. Society shapes us and more often it is looked down upon to gaze at the world through a creative eye, a spiritual gaze. This epiphany reminded me of a Viral Video I had recently seen. Where a boy was interviewed at a county fair. When the interviewer asked the child how they where doing, the child responded with a simple and poignant response “I like turtles”. The video became a youtube phenomenon, however I feel for the wrong reasons. Most laughed at the child’s response, chalking it up to a “Kids Say the Darndest Things”. Yet, I propose a different side. Could in fact the child have what we so often discard in the dying embers of youth. What Thoreau put his life work into; A greater understanding for what we hold petty. Granting the lesser than human, a sense of being. Maybe a boys love for turtles, has more value than what we place in our wallets, or what lies of a convenient store shelf. Maybe value isn’t a physical attribute shaped by society but a connection we make on a personal level; And maybe as Walden has taught us, it takes removing oneself from society, to the woods, away from the seeing eye, to tap into our inner childhood. Our inner understanding and our inner spirituality.
Sources:
Thoreau, Henry D. Walden. Boston: Beacon Press, 1997. Print.
Zombie Kid Likes Turtles. Youtube. 10 June 2010. NA. 24 May 2012. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMNry4PE93Y.
