Walden Criticism Analyses

I found three very short analyses regarding Henry David Thoreau, all of which seemed to like his works about Walden. The first one was by Andrew Preston Peabody. He says:

"The economical details and calculations in this book are more curious than useful; for the author's life in the woods was on too narrow a scale to find imitators. But in describing his hermitage and his forest life, he says so many pithy and brilliant things, and offers so many piquant, and, we may add, so many just, comments on society as it is, that his book is well worth the reading, both for its actual contents and its suggestive capacity" (Peabody).

I find it interesting, as well as agree with Peabody, in that Thoreau did not get straight to the point regarding whatever he was trying to do, rather than just get straight to what he was trying to say.

The second analysis was by a man named Fred Lewis Pattee. I really like what this guy had to say, as he also seems to have the same idea about Walden as I do. He says:

"Walden, which contains a minute account of the two years at Walden Pond, is Thoreau's best book. It is full of the wild aroma of the woods. In no other book can one come so close to Nature's heart. We hear in it the weird cry of the loons over the water; we watch the frolics of the squirrels; we observe the thousand phenomena of the wonderful little lake; we listen to the forest sounds by day and by night; we study the tell-tale snow; we watch, with bated breath, a battle to the death between two armies of ants. For minute and loving descriptions of the woods and fields, Walden has had no rival" (Pattee).

Thoreau definitely does use nature a lot to describe the going ons of humans, and uses symbolism a lot throughout the short passage that I happened to read. While I was reading it, I was reminded of Ray Bradbury and his writing style. I wondered if it was possible that maybe this was one of the authors Bradbury read when he was younger, and thus created his own writing style based upon Thoreau. However, it is difficult to say.

The third and final criticism I found to be somewhat helpful was written by Theodore F. Wolfe. Wolfe also agrees with the two who wrote previously, and I agree with him as well. Wolfe says:

"Some one has said, "Thoreau experienced Nature as other men experience religion." Certainly the life at Walden, which he depicted in one of the most fascinating of books, was in all its details—whether he was ecstatically hoeing beans in his field or dreaming on his door-step, floating on the lake or rambling in forest and field—that of an ascetic and devout worshipper of Nature in all her moods" (Wolfe).

Wolfe is saying that Thoreau used a lot of details, no matter what was going on. He used nature to describe practically everything that was going on.

So, I did find three very short criticisms regarding Thoreau's Walden, and I did enjoy reading the short excerpt out of our book as well. I found it to be interesting, and full of nature, which is something I enjoy a lot. Therefore, reading Walden actually was not that bad in my opinion.


Works Cited:

• Pattee, Fred Lewis. A History of American Literature, 224–225. 1896. Quoted as "On Walden" in Bloom, Harold, ed. Henry David Thoreau, Classic Critical Views. New York: Chelsea House Publishing, 2008. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= CCVHDT040&SingleRecord=True (accessed November 15, 2010).

• Peabody, Andrew Preston. From North American Review (October 1854): 536. Quoted as "On Walden" in Bloom, Harold, ed. Henry David Thoreau, Classic Critical Views. New York: Chelsea House Publishing, 2008. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= CCVHDT036&SingleRecord=True (accessed November 15, 2010).

• Wolfe, Theodore F. "The Concord Pilgrimage." In Literary Shrines, 71. 1895. Quoted as "The Concord Pilgrimage" in Bloom, Harold, ed. Henry David Thoreau, Classic Critical Views. New York: Chelsea House Publishing, 2008. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= CCVHDT039&SingleRecord=True (accessed November 15, 2010).