Thoreau's Biography What distinct character trait emerges from this man's life and writings
Perhaps the most attractive aspect about the life of Henry DavidThoreau to a modern reader is the fact that the man actually lived the typeof life and philosophy that he preached. Thoreau disdained theindustrialized, modern urban life of the modern intellectual. His entirelife illustrates how he lived, not simply as a great thinker, but as onewho embodied the living principles of the Transcendentalist movement.Thoreau did not simply tell others to live. Rather he sought to discover,and then to embody his own principles in the text of lived experience, as First of all, rather than attempting to secure a job as a minister oracademic after graduating from college, Thoreau embarked upon a period ofstudy in the real world, to determine what was the best path for himself.On this quest, he worked as, among many other 'menial' occupations andpursuits, as a handyman for the esteemed essayis
t and Unitarian minister,Ralph Waldo Emerson. Thoreauwas willing to live in harsh conditions and to go to jail to ensure thathis philosophies became known, and, if not popular, pricks to the Americanconsciousness of what it truly meant to be a self-reliant, just, andpeaceful American. Again, long before the abolitionistcause became popular, Thoreau was willing to put his reputation at risk andtake a courageous stand. Thoreau was unpopular for his defense of Brown, but many individuals,even those who disagreed with his core philosophies of physical self-reliance, unquestioning environmentalism, and the importance of civiljustice defended his willingness to put his beliefs into practice. He did this long before suchpractices were acceptable, even amongst members of America's literaryelite. Thoreau recoded in his journals and in the book that bearsthe location's name, his practical daily difficulties of dealing withordinary individuals in the community, as well as his many successes andfailures in dealing with harsh environmental conditions. The importance of working with one's hands, as a path to true self-reliance, in Thoreau's philosophy was next put into practice in his mostfamous experiment, that of his time of living in the woods in Walden,Massachusetts. Furthermore, he was one of the first Americans to write a defenseof Captain John Brown's rebellion, conducted in the name of all enslavedAfrican-Americans, at Harper's Ferry. Thoreau is one of America'sfirst genuine naturalists, advocating the importance of preserving thenatural environment not simply for the economic benefits accrued to farmersand those who make their living off older ways of life, nor for theinternal spiritual benefits nature conveys to humans, but simply becausenature is a thing in and of itself to be respected, with awe, wonder, andat times, fear. Thoreau's willingness to put into practice what he preached, however,is perhaps best exemplified in his willingness to engage in acts ofpolitical, civil disobedience, going to jail in protest of actions by hisgovernment that he believed were wrong. By working with his hands, Thoreau was able to gain abetter sense of the importance of lived experience, rather than living inbooks. However, the literary climate at this most famousTranscendentalist's house enabled the emerging writer in Thoreau to remainimmersed in this movement's literary scene and its ideas. Having come to grips with its harshness in a very real and visceral way,rather than merely wandering about the woods for a brief time as a'transparent eyeball' before heading homeward to a warm bed, By living atWalden, Thoreau thus establishes his credibility as an environmentalist andnaturalist, as well as an author and scholar. Unlike Emerson, Thoreau does not sentimentalize the natural world.
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