Walden: A Review

By Betty Bassett

In Walden, Thoreau celebrates and reimagines the value and meaning of life by a pond.  

"...I went to the woods because I wished 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. 

...I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms."

Thoreau examines what defines the American character: individualism. He contrasts that against the ways that civilization can be oppressive.

In an example of his naturalistic approach the  buzzing of a mosquito exploring his cottage, is to him a Homeric epic of adventure because he sees it from the mosquito's point of view.  Thoureau witnesses a battle of red and black ants, and it is as grand as any battle of men full of strife and daring courage.  

The transaction of the business of life is the life that we relinquish to afford it.   Humans being are slaves to material goods in that we trade our time for it's acquisition.  Humans have an addiction to acquiring goods.  It's mindless, relentless and unyielding.

"The cost of a thing is the amount of what I will call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run.

The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation."

Material goods do not fill an emotional void.

Thoreau examines life marching to the beat of a different drummer.  He reimagines life from varying perspectives.  Getting free of the mind numbing relentless shackles of society and living deliberately in the woods by a pond is sucking the marrow of life.  It gives one clarity of purpose in a way.

We find an American restlessness in the writing of Thoureau.  We find a philosophical and naturalistic encounter living in the woods. 

Walking miles through the snow Thoreau keeps his appointment with the beech tree.  He wonders about nature on his path.  It is a journey, a noticing of small daily changes in the woods.

"I frequently tramped eight or ten miles through the deepest snow to keep an appointment with a beech-tree, or a yellow birch, or an old acquaintance among the pines."

I find in Thoreau's Walden a captivating depiction of nature that is full of metaphors. His philosophy forms the backbone of American values yet is not what I, myself, would embrace.  Thoureau's language and imagery are often poignant as they offer a different perspective of individualism.