Thought Starters

We tend to think of Thoreau in extremes, as either our first and foremost eco-saint or as a hypocrite who had his sister do his laundry while he lived in Walden (Richard Smith). The truth is he was much more complex and, therefore, interesting than either of these extremes.

On this page, I hope to supplement what your text gives you on Thoreau with some other literary critics' thoughts and ideas about Thoreau. As you read the Thoreau selections in the Bedford Anthology, consider these ideas as conversation starters--interesting ideas to debate with--not as limitations on or boundaries for your own thinking.

As you consider these critical views of "Resistance to Civil Government" and Walden, look for evidence in the text to confirm, rebut, or complicate these readings and/or help you craft your own views of Thoreau's message and style. And, of course, do not forget about our guiding questions (see above):

"Resistance to Civil Government"

On the Thoreau Reader's "Resistance to Civil Government" pages, Lawrence Rosenwald offers this analysis:

"The essay is individualist, secular, anarchist, elitist and anti-democratic; but it has influenced persons of great religious devotion, leaders of collective campaigns, and members of resistance movements."

Look for signs of those labels Rosenwald applies to the essay. Where can we find Thoreau the "individualist," the "secular, anarchist," the "elitist" or the anti democrat? Why, despite these traits or perhaps even because of them has this essay been so influential? Where is the rhetorical magic in this text that makes it such a landmark?

In a brief introduction to "Resistance to Civil Government" in his anthology Transcendentalism, Joel Myerson sums up the two primary ways that readers respond to this text:

"Depending on how one reacts to Transcendentalism, this essay can be seen as either the ultimate in transcendental self-reliance ( "any man more right than his neighbors constitutes a majority of one") or the height of antisocial Transcendentalist self-importance and egotism" (547)

Do you read Thoreau from one of these two sides of Myerson's binary or do you find something else in the essay/lecture?

Walden

The Thoreau Reader page on Walden includes an interesting quote from an obvious Thoreau enthusiast, Professor Kathryn VanSpanckeren:

"In Walden, Thoreau ... opens the inner frontier of self-discovery as no American book had up to this time. As deceptively modest as Thoreau's ascetic life, it is no less than a guide to living the classical ideal of the good life. Both poetry and philosophy, this long poetic essay challenges the reader to examine his or her life and live it authentically."

Is this how you feel about Walden? What lines can you find in the text that verify or challenge this assessment?

Here is a great thought starter from Richard Schneider in his essay on Walden in the Cambridge Companion to Henry David Thoreau:

Most readers approach Walden assuming that they will find the "hard bottom" of its truth in the popular cultural myth of Thoreau as the hermit sitting meditatively by Walden Pond. It is a myth of retreat, a myth of a return to Eden, a myth of stasis, and it is a very appealing myth to a postindustrial society faced with overwhelming change. That myth is in Walden, to be sure, but the alert reader will find that it does not take him or her any more than halfway to the full significance of the book. A closer reading of Walden reveals a Thoreau who is often less interested in stasis than in change, less interested in meditation than in a journey of exploration" (92).

Is Schneider right? Is there a tension between Thoreau the hermit and Thoreau the philosophical adventurer in the text? Look for passages that pull you in one direction or the other (or both simultaneously, for that matter!).