Henry David Thoreau
The book Henry David Thoreau by Joseph Wood Krutch involves adetailed look at the life and works of Thoreau. While it does includebiographical information, the main purpose of the book appears to be not todescribe Thoreau's life, but to explore who Thoreau was. This focuses onhis writing and especially, on the unique view of life presented in hiswriting. In reading the book, it becomes clear that Krutch holds Thoreauin high regard. In particular, he seems to respect his individuality, hisfocus on his own journey, and his overwhelming happiness. At the sametime, there is a sense that the author is fascinated by Thoreau's outlookand is trying to understand this outlook for himself. After reading thebook, I found myself considering Thoreau in the same way. I find himinteresting in a fascinating way, where I have a sense that he knewsomething most people don't. Overall, I am left with a view of a personwith an outlook unlike that of most people, and while I cannot fullyunderstand how he looked at life, I do hope that one day I will achieve In the opening chapter Krutch (4) describes people as consideringThoreau as an "irresponsible eccentric" and notes that he was not
Interestingly,Krutch points out that Thoreau did not have one overall philosophy but thatit changed over the range of his works and in many cases, contradicteditself. Instead, it suggests that his happiness is deeper and longer-lasting than that. Krutch seems to recognize something extraordinary in Thoreau'swriting, with the whole book seeming like an attempt to try and discoverwhat it is about Thoreau's outlook that makes him so special. While this view of an irresponsibleeccentric could be considered as presenting Thoreau in a negative way,Krutch turns it around and presents it as a positive. In the end, Krutch seems to consider this as something unique aboutThoreau that cannot be easily grasped because most people don't think likeThoreau. This can be considered as the characteristic that caused otherpeople to think of him as "eccentric. Thisimage suggests that Thoreau was a happy person, though not just in acarefree way. While he doesn'tuse the word, the impression received is that Thoreau is enlightened. This isn'ta short-term happiness or a surface happiness, but one that suggestssomething much deeper. This is something that Krutch seems to admire inThoreau, with much of his consideration of Thoreau's philosophy seeminglike an attempt to uncover how he achieved this perspective. " However, this labelling is a resultof people in general not being able to understand Thoreau because of hisindividuality. This emphasizes theimage of Thoreau as a person with a unique vision, unconcerned with whatdetermines the actions of many other writers and scholars. I also seem him as an individual with a unique viewthat separates him from the majority of people. There is asense of admiration in this and also a sense that the author wants toachieve that same understanding for himself. I have this image ofThoreau created, but like the author, I still cannot really determine whatmakes him who he is.
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