Critical Analysis Essay

Transcendentalism-thoreau.ppt

Transcendentalism

Henry David Thoreau

Thoreau was born in Concord, Massachusetts to John Thoreau (a pencil maker) and Cynthia Dunbar.
Of his face, Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote: "[Thoreau] is as ugly as sin, long-nosed, queer-mouthed, and with uncouth and rustic, though courteous manners, corresponding very well with such an exterior. But his ugliness is of an honest and agreeable fashion, and becomes him much better than beauty."

Henry David Thoreau

Thoreau also wore a neck-beard for many years, which he insisted many women found attractive. However, Louisa May Alcott reportedly mentioned to Ralph Waldo Emerson that Thoreau's facial hair "will most assuredly deflect amorous advances and preserve the man's virtue in perpetuity."

Henry David Thoreau

Thoreau studied at Harvard University between 1833 and 1837
Upon graduation Thoreau returned home to Concord, where he befriended Ralph Waldo Emerson. Emerson took a paternal and at times patronizing interest in Thoreau, advising the young man and introducing him to a circle of local writers and thinkers

Henry David Thoreau

Thoreau was a philosopher of nature and its relation to the human condition
In his early years he followed Transcendentalism.
They held that an ideal spiritual state transcends, or goes beyond, the physical and empirical, and that one achieves that insight via personal intuition rather than religious doctrine. In their view, Nature is the outward sign of inward spirit, expressing the “radical correspondence of visible things and human thoughts,” as Emerson wrote in Nature (1836).

Henry David Thoreau

Thoreau embarked on a two-year experiment in simple living on 4 July 1845, when he moved to a small self-built house on land owned by Emerson in a second-growth forest around the shores of Walden Pond. The house was not in wilderness but at the edge of town, 1.5 miles (2.4 km) from his family home.

Walden Pond

Thoreau’s house at Walden Pond

Thoreau's Cove at Walden Pond

Walden Pond at sunset

Walden

Thoreau left Walden Pond on 6 September 1847.
In 1854, he published Walden, or Life in the Woods, recounting the two years, two months, and two days he had spent at Walden Pond.
Walden at first won few admirers, but today critics regard it as a classic American book that explores natural simplicity, harmony, and beauty as models for just social and cultural conditions.

Walden: Economy

Thoreau begins by outlining his project: a two-year and two-month stay at a crude cabin in the woods near Walden Pond.
He does this, he says, in order to illustrate the spiritual benefits of a simplified lifestyle. He easily supplies the four necessities of life (food, shelter, clothing, and fuel).
He meticulously records his expenditures and earnings, demonstrating his understanding of "economy," as he builds his house and buys and grows food. For a home and freedom, he spends a mere $28.12.

Walden: Conclusion

Thoreau criticizes Americans' constant rush to succeed, to acquire superfluous wealth that does nothing to augment their happiness.
He urges us to change our lives for the better, not by acquiring more wealth and material possessions, but instead to "sell your clothes and keep your thoughts," and to "say what you have to say, not what you ought."
He criticizes conformity: "If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away." By doing these things, men may find happiness and self-fulfillment.