An+Introduction+to+Thoreau

Original Author: Laura Letendre, A&S195 SP10 Revision Author:  Transcendentalism as a movement has many famous supporters, and also a very far reaching influence, touching such areas as politics, nature, conservation, war, and slavery to name a few. One of its most well known champions would be Henry David Thoreau, known for his works such as // Walden, A week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, Civil Disobedience, Reform Papers // as well as other published works. He was not as well liked or respected in his time, as is the fate of many great thinkers we study today. Thoreau was known for his influence on such current figures as Martin Luther King Jr. as well as Gandhi, in their work with peaceful protest against an issue.  To understand Thoreau it is essential to have an idea of what Transcendental thinking of the time was. “Transcendentalists operated with the sense that a new era was at hand. They were critics of their contemporary society for its unthinking conformity and urged that each individual find “an original relation to the universe”” (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). Moreover they believed in the ability of each individual to affect his or her environment for the good. In his essay “Emerson, Thoreau, Fuller and Transcendentalism”, David M. Robinson, Professor at Oregon State University notes, “It is a measure of the present moment in literary studies that the political character of Transcendentalism, an important but somewhat secondary interpretive question form the beginnings of the movement, has now moved front and center as today’s readers try to discern how the Transcendentalists thought and acted as political agents, and how they speak politically to us now” (Robinson, 3).  With this question in mind we go first to the Politics of Thoreau. Today it is simply called tax evasion, and as in Thoreau’s time it does involve some hard time. However, when Thoreau decided not to pay his poll tax in 1846, he looked at his night in jail (only one night?!) as a time to “meditate on the authority of the state” (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy 10). As a result of this night and other musings Thoreau came up with the idea that an individual really has no obligation to resign his beliefs or conscience to that of the state. As a matter of fact, he decided that as truly conscientious person we had a duty to oppose the state, if and when they were propagating “immoral legislation” (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 10). He considered this especially important when confronted with issues like slavery and war, saying in his publication // Reform Papers //, “I cannot for an instant recognize that political organization as my government which is the slaves government also” (// Reform Papers, //67). He goes on to note that it would be possible to rid the country of slavery through a “peaceable revolution” if everyone, like him, refused to pay their taxes and were thus arrested and jailed, clogging the system. It is this idea of peaceable change that was influential to other political thinkers and activists mentioned before like Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhi.  Thoreau has also been influential for environmentalists both in his day and currently. A large environmental issue right now is sustainability, which if they chose, activists today could use Thoreau as a role model. When he goes to live at Walden Pond, he goes with the intention of a deliberate life, saying,  “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 I had not lived…to drive life into a corner…to know it by experience and…to give a true account of it” (Walden, 78-9).  During this time, Thoreau believed that he was able to “from the right perspective…possess and use a farm with more satisfaction than the farmer, who is preoccupied with feeding his family and expanding his operations” (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 7). He believed during this time he was able to root out what were life’s true necessities. There have been many books and essays written on Thoreau and specifically // Walden //’s impact on the both the future and current action of environmentalism. In his book // No Man’s Garden: Thoreau and a new Vision for Civilization and Nature // (Island), Daniel B. Botkin “uses Thoreau’s nature and wilderness writings to discuss a variety of environmental issues, advocating an environmental sensibility that “celebrates the products of civilization as well as the splendor of life on Earth”” (Robinson, 16). In addition in Botkin’s keynote address for the Thoreau society entitled “The Depth of Walden Pond: Thoreau as a Guide to Solving Twenty-First Century Environmental Problems” he “emphasizes Thoreau’s measurements of Walden Pond as an indication of, “an intrinsic naturalist’s and observer’s inclination” (Robinson, 16). Thoreau is also called a proponent of “virtue ethics” by Philip Cafaro in his essay “Thoreau, Leopold, and Carson: Toward an Environmental Virtue Ethics” (Robinson, 17), which is meant to say that he, along with Leopold and Carson, adhere to five common themes, a “desire to put economic life in its proper place”; “a commitment to science, combined with an appreciation of its limits”; “nonanthropocentrism”; “an appreciation for the wild and support for wilderness protection”; and “a bedrock belief that life is good: both human and nonhuman” (Robinson, 17). As we can see Thoreau’s writing is a major backbone to the environmental movement of today.  In the spring of 1861 however, Thoreau was in very poor health, and was advised by his physician that he leave Massachusetts for hopes of recovery in a new climate. It is at this point that Thoreau’s connection to Illinois appears. Thoreau decided that a trip to Minnesota would be just the thing, and so on May 11, 1861 set out with Horace Mann Jr. They traveled cross country and on May 21 arrived in Chicago. He made the decision to meet a Mississippi riverboat in Dunleith (now East Dubuque, IL) rather than in Fulton and as a result traveled through northern Illinois on May 23 according to the report by prairieworksinc. The following is what he wrote in his journal: <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;">“Greatest rolling prairie without trees just beyond Winnebago. Last 40 miles in NW of Ill quite hilly. Mississippi backwater in galena River 8 miles back. Water high now flooded thin woods and more open water behind…Much pink flowered apple tree (thorn like) thro Illinois which may be the Pyrus coronaria…Distances on prairie deceptive – a stack of wheat straw looks like a hill on the horizon ¼ or ½ mile off – it stands out so bold and high. Small houses – with out barns surrounded and overshadowed by great stacks of wheat straw. Some wood __always__ visible – but not generally large. The inhabitants remind you of mice nesting in a wheat stack – midst their wealth. Women working in fields quite commonly. Fences of narrow boards. Towns are as it were stations on a RR…Only one boat up daily from Dunleith by this line – in no case allowed to stop on the way. Staphylea trifolia out at Dunleith.” (Thoreau in Galena at Prairie Works, 2). <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;">So maybe not the most inspiring of all his works, but, as were many others of his time, and as many still are today, the Mississippi River and Mississippi River valley held great fascination, and are still considered scenic and of historic importance. Not only that, but another well-know Transcendentalist, and major feminist before her time, Margaret fuller made a trip through the area as well, and was quite complimentary of the area. Overall, Thoreau, who was much critiqued in his time for his seeming indifference to the opinions and cares of others, as well as his lack of attachment or intimate relationships, took total ownership of his solitude. Through it, he was able to achieve the heightened sense of mind that was so important to the Transcendental ideal, and produced ideas and ways of thinking about environmental, social and political reform that are largely used today, though often by a different name. To this man and his prescient thinking we owe a debt of gratitude. It was his colleague, Ralph Waldo Emerson, who perhaps put it best in the introduction to // Walden //, when he said of Thoreau, “he chose to be rich by making his wants few” (Walden, vii). <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> ** <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Works Cited ** <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Bagley, S.H. “Man Thinking about Nature: The Evolution of the Poet’s Form and Function in the Journal of Henry David Thoreau 1837-1852” Available: [] <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Robinson, David M. “Emerson, Thoreau, Fuller, and Transcendentalism”. Oregon State University Available: [] <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Available: [] <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Thoreau, Henry David. // Reform Papers //, ed. Wendell Glick. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1973 <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Thoreau, Henry David. // Walden: or Life in the Woods //. London, J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd, and New York, E.P. Dalton & Co, 1912 <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Thoreau in Galena Available: [] <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;">[] <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;">[] <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Return to Transcendentalism <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Return to Home
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;">An Introduction to Thoreau  **