Walden
Traditionally, existentialism has been viewed as mostly twentieth-centuryphilosophical movement, and transcendentalism a nineteenth-century one. Not onlyis Henry David Thoreau's Walden Pond an existentialist work, but by examining thesimilarities and interrelations between existentialist thought and Walden, we canunderstand Thoreau's purpose in writing it. Walden Pond is not a treatise on nature,nor a manual on how to live one's life, but rather a kind of how-to guide for thoseinterested in finding their own personal truth. This is a common theme inexistentialist works. Despite the label of transcendentalist, Thoreau is primarily anexistentialist, as made clear by the similarities between his writings andphilosophies and those of the great existentialists. Existentialism is a particular branch of philosophical thought that stemmed from areaction against the works of Georg Friedrich Hegel. Hegel thought that he hadworked out a complete philosophical system by which all thought worked, includingthe exact innerworkings of the metaphysical man. While most existentialists foundHegel's attempts at a unified philosophical worldview unpalatable, they did agreewith his concept of the dual components of mankind. According to
Thoreau sets forth this thought in Walden:"I learned this, at least, by experiment; that if one advances confidently in thedirection of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, hewill meet with a success unexpected in common hours" (244). Both Thoreau and Zarathustra understand the subjectivity andindividuality of reality, and want others to do the same. In trueexistentialist fashion, Thoreau proclaims only that one should live, for "How canyouths better learn to live than by at once trying the experiment of living?" (39). Walden was an experimentat life and one of Thoreau's many quests for his own truth and reality. Existentialists felt that, because one is in control of his consciousness andobservation, he can dictate self-destiny. The precedence of existence over objectivity made science seem not only futile butfoolish, for science attempts to find a truly objective worldview. Thoreau parallels this, wanting to explore his ownexistence, and he attempted to remove all barriers to its exploration; thus he built acabin on the shores of Walden Pond. Rather than even attempt this fission of existence, priority was placed on the livingof a complete, unified existence. This existentialistconnection shows that in Walden, Thoreau's true purpose is to educate, as is thepurpose of all true supermen. "He does not wish to say," declares Nietzsche, "Look,there is the superman, become like him, but, Behold, I have searched for myself; Iam as I each you to be; go likewise and search for yourself; then you have thesuperman" (107). "I mean," he asserts, "That [you] shouldnot play life, or study it merely, but earnestly live it from beginning to end" (39). "Thoreau's chief business," observes critic Vernon Parrington,"Would seem to have been with life itself, and how it might be best lived by HenryThoreau" (257) With this search for unique personal truth, both Thoreau and the existentialists werewary of those who sought to emulate their actions. And what use here would it be if Iwere to discover a so-called objective truth, or if I worked my waythrough the philosophers' systems and were able to call them all toaccount on request, point out inconsistencies in every single circle?(Kierkegaard 75)Thoreau had identical goals in Walden, wanting "each one to find and pursue hisown way" (53).
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Acceptance Essays
