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| Replica of Thoreau's cabin at Walden Pond |
The "wealth gap" that we see today seems to have been anticipated by Thoreau -- "the luxury of the one class is counterbalanced by the indigence of another" -- as has the shift toward our daily obsession with our devices and our social media: "man becomes the tool of his tools." Thoreau's response -- his experiment -- was his cabin on Walden pond, whose every nail and shingle he priced out, and whose every mortise and corner he hewed with his own hands. As to college, he believed that everyone planning to attend one should similarly build his own dormitory room -- and would learn more about architecture by doing so than by studying the history of human buildings. It becomes a familiar trope for him -- do, don't study how to do -- and work on the inner self, not on its outward trappings.
As Thoreau turns his attention to other aspects of his, and the human situation, his view grows even more expansive -- or, one could say, smaller. Touting his own "Spartan" circumstances, he descries everything from food to furniture, arguing against accumulation with the ferocity of a reality-TV host railing against a hoarder. Nothing beyond the "essentials" will do, and those are few enough -- he counts his plates and utensils, notes that he's picked up a couple of chairs from the curb, and that "no one is so poor as to have to sit on a pumpkin." Again, some of his complaints seem prescient, as he decries the man who wakes up after a half-hour nap and demands "what's the news?" This incessant quest for information resonates today, but Thoreau wields a still broader brush: Newspapers, magazines, and even personal letters, are dismissed as wastes of time.
But what, then, is worthy of our time? One might expect that in his section on books, he might at least give some recommended reading, but instead he turns obscure, vaguely but exhaustively praising the "classics" of Greek and Roman literature (preferably read in the original Greek and Latin) and deprecating much of the literature in his own language. It seems oddly conventional for the advocate of 'marching to the beat of a different drummer.'
So what do we make of this today? Does this text still have the power to persuade, even those of us who would find it impossible to follow all of Thoreau's dictates? Is he merely reacting against the world he found himself in, or can we discern a positive program, a philosophy that stands on its own? Thoreau seems at times our contemporary and at others a positive antique; which is it to be?
Your thoughts below.
While reading Walden I got the sense that Thoreau was very simplistic and the way that he lived while at Walden. He talks a lot about economics in the first part of his book and then moves on to reading and shelter and talks a lot about how he made do with very little things. I found this quite interesting and maybe a criticism on capitalism and materialistic people. On page 65, he says “Simplify. Simplify. Instead of three meals a day, if it be necessary eat but one; instead of 100 dishes, five; and reduce other things in proportion.“ (Thoreau, 65, 66). I thought this was very interesting the way that he lived his life with very little during these two years and yet had so much to say about his time there. I also find it interesting how he advises people to reduce their materialistic means and to try and live a simpler life. I think this relates to today because a lot of people in our life are materialistic and have a lot of junk that they don’t know what to do with. We have so much trash that it causes a momentous amount of pollution which doesn’t help with the environment or, in turn, global warming, which is affecting Antarctica and the poles greatly. Some of his advice would do well for a lot of people who are very materialistic and have a lot of things that they could get rid of and also kind of gives a call back to the idea that we don’t need to necessarily buy so many thing, thus maybe a direct or indirect hit on modern day capitalism.
ReplyDeleteIsabella Santoro
I really enjoyed reading Walden because it's a fresh perspective on life and what the real meaning of it is. It seems that he lives a simple life in nature and wants people to understand that we don't need many things to survive or the actual need for them. I think his overall goal is for us to become more conscious as a society as a whole on what we consume as people or specifically. He tells his journey in hopes for people to have sympathy and relate to his story of how he is content and happy with his minimalistic living. I think this is very relevant today because we as consumers have such a fast-paced market to keep up with and never-ending trends that one day are here and the next day gone. I think his argument would still stand during these times and could persuade others to live a minimalistic life especially in the way that this consumerist lifestyle affects the environment. If we think about how much clothes, shoes, makeup any kind of collectibles that we buy in mass quantities only for it all to end up on landfills when the next best thing comes out. I do believe his philosophy can stand on its own in that way that we still have a problem, and we currently have room to improve it and still relate to Walden's theology.
ReplyDelete-Mirna Soto
Thoreau appears frustrated with the consumerist nature of the era that he lives in, but he seems most alarmed by the uncritical acceptance of this modern lifestyle by the people that surround him. He attributes this as a contributing factor to the increasing leveraged and financialized lives that surround him, lamenting that it is “the luxurious and dissipated who set the fashions which the herd so diligently follow” (34). Through clothing, he creates a parallel with the sociology of fashion and expands that relationship to being reproduced in other aspects of life, while eventually lamenting the rising industrialization of the Northeast, which to Thoreau is a promise that these conditions will continue and possibly expand. This first and longest chapter is at times less a coherent philosophy than a collection of grievances, but in the way that he invokes the Classics, followed by the many examples of times he speaks positively of indigenous Americans and other indigenous people, there is a strong suggestion that his inspiration for a heavily simplified and nature-focused existence lies in something of a return to a past way of life and of human culture. In the “Dwelling” essay from Ecocriticism, Garrard discusses the “Ecological Indian” and the tropes of a native people more closely connected to their world and each other than is such in European society, and at times Thoreau seems to fall for these and similar tropes. But it is possible to view his “experiment” as a way that he might make a connection to a human way of being that he feels may have existed in the past, by creating the conditions that he might leave civilization to become a more authentic version of himself.
ReplyDelete-Daniel Grothaus
The main thing that I take from Walden is that some people prefer a simple life, back when humans lived alongside nature instead of separate from it. Thoreau living in the wilderness reminds me of other similar stories and people, like Swiss Family Robinson, or Dick Proenneke. Both stories involve people who came from the civilized life and decided that living in nature was best for them. Personally, I feel that living in nature can be mentally and physically healing, and also, it is nice knowing that any resources you collect and build are all yours. Thoreau supports this view in a way when he talks about how if everyone lived simply and with nature, as he did, then no one would want to steal from each other. As he put it, "These [robbery and theft] take place only in communities where some have got more than is sufficient while others have not enough," (Page 118-119). While some of Thoreau's views on life I don't agree with, like him viewing Greek and Roman literature as "classic" and not English literature, I do agree with his take on living simply, and how many things in life that we cherish - TV, telephones, newspapers - are just distractions that are holding us back. I feel like he is reacting against the world he grew up in - because of its flaws - but at the same time, people can be inspired by his example and find that living a simple life away from the troubles that modern society has created is most fulfilling.
ReplyDelete- Elliot Varone
DeleteWhile Thoreau's sentiments are often quite persuasive as to the absurdity of supposedly civilized life, while reading I did get the impression that he was living more in the role of a curiosity, than truly disconnecting himself from society. In other words he was simply living on the periphery of urban life, criticizing it from arms-length. Yet in reality, even as Thoreau was living just a stone's throw from the most populated cities in the US, there were many settlers in the 1800's that were living totally isolated lives, without any others around them for hundreds of miles. This is to say that while Thoreau does capture many discordant aspects of society, he may not be accurately describing what is is to truly live apart from modernity, isolated and in the untamed wilds - It is not a balanced description of the tradeoffs of living in one environment versus the other.
ReplyDeleteI truly feel that Thoreau's work is just as impactful to the society we live in as it was to the society he was living in. Currently, our society is struggling to figure out what is essential to life as capitalism runs rampant in the decision process. Things merely meant for entertainment - like phones and laptops - are now seen as essential to having a working class job and accessing higher education. I think of people whom I graduated with who felt that higher education was out of their reach and therefor went into entry level trade jobs. I feel that Thoreau would be proud of them for going against the grain and finding a life where the true essentials are being put to use. These people aren't wasting money and effort on gaining introspection, they are actively gaining skills and knowledge in a way that is sustainable. Its because of this that I feel that Thoreau's work is a philosophy. His anti capitalist views that simmer throughout this work is something that I find myself and m friends agreeing with. The thought of being able to live an introspective and fulfilling life like Thoreau without the influence of masses is a dream. Reading this piece makes me question what I both want and need to feel like I am living. Sure, my knee jerk reaction is to call his work an antique, but his words keep applying to contemporary problems as I read them. Whether his intention was to create a philosophy that upheld over time or to just simply push back against his society, his work has a lot of persuasive pull to me and (hopefully) my classmates.
ReplyDeleteK Ferragamo
DeleteThoreu's perspective in Walden is simplistic in the way of life, he appreciated nature and the solitude that it provides instead of seeking out more than what is necessary to enjoy life. He focuses on the journey that is less taken in hopes that people will adapt to a more minimalistic way of life. I think his theology is extremely relevant, as technology and social media grows the majority of the population becomes disconnected from the simplicity and pureness that life offers us. We are so consumed over what is popular or trendy adding on to the constant stress and we forget that life is not supposed to be as difficult as we make it. To add, the constant evolvement of trends leads to an enormous amount of trash that just ends up in landfills, fashion trends, makeup trends, etc. As soon as something is "no longer trendy" it gets tossed, making fast fashion more and more relevant to consumers. I think Thoreu's theology can relate to today, his work would apply to many over consumers today, it would show that we do not need the everything in this world to be satisfied with life.
ReplyDelete-Dariana M.