Henry David Thoreau (1817- 1862)

I Life

● Born in a common family in New England

● Graduated from Harvard, but only stayed at home and helped family business

● A friend of Emerson

● Active in social life and had a strong sense of justice (Example: He once refused to pay a poll-tax of 2 dollars because he felt the tax was unfair, and thus he was jailed. And later he wrote an essay named “Civil Disobedience” which advocated passive resistance to unjust laws and influenced Gandhi in India.甘地的非暴力不合作运动)

● not successful as a writer and lived in obscurity all his life

II. Works

● A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers

● Walden（or Life in the Woods）

(description of his life near the pond called Walden belonging to Emerson; the author lived there for nearly two years with only an axe at the beginning) (This book was a failure in his own time but became very popular in the 20th century.)
   Walden presented Thoreau’s unusual interests in nature and showed his individualism which inherited from American Puritanism. The book described the author’s extremely simple life and regeneration he experienced when he lived near the Walden pond. Comparing with Emerson who was a great thinker, Thoreau was a great experimentalist who put Emerson’s Transcendental doctrines into practice in the actual life.

III  Questions for Discussion:

1.      What is the author’s attitudes towards charity? Why does he hold such a attitude? (P. 20)

Showing no Sympathy to the Poor

From Self-Reliance, Emerson never sympathized with the person who had no relation with him. He just did what he should do. He said: “Expect me not to show causes why I seek or why I exclude company. Then again, do not tell me, as a good man did today, of my obligation to put all poor men in good situations. Are they my poor? I tell your, your foolish philanthropist, that I grudge the dollar, the dime, the cent. I give to such men as do not belong to me and whom I do not belong.”(Emerson, P12, 2005) This point of view shows that if these poor people are self-supported, their living conditions would be better. Helping this kind of people is to do harm to them and make them more and more poor. There is a popular saying: “If one’s pocket is empty, but idea is full, that’s temporary; on the contrary, if one’s pocket if full, but idea is empty, that’s also temporary”. At most time, the poor are lack of independent conducts, optimistic attitudes, and adventurous spirits. They have no innovative abilities, because they never think that they should challenge life and make progress. Therefore, in many aspects, the poor are lagged behind of the society. From Emerson’s opinion, he definitely rejected to help this kind of people. However, sometimes the situation is different, just as Emerson said “There is a class of persons to whom by all spiritual affinity I am bought and sold, for them I will go to prison.” (Emerson, P12, 2005). This kind of people is the poor in pocket, but they are full of ideas in mind. They have the quality of confidence, of independence, but only lack of materials. Emerson believed that their conditions would be quickly improved through a period of time.
    The poor condition is not terrible, but the poor mind is a very serious problem. The man should never help the poor with money, but give them a tool to produce wealth by themselves, or teach them to be independent and challengeable. Emerson’s opinions towards the poor have given the readers a meaningful enlightenment.

2.      According to the author, what do most people believe to be virtue? And what is real virtue? (P.21)

According to the author, most people they should show their virtue in some specific situations, but not always. In order to show how virtuos they are, they will just do what the other people believe is good. So their purposes are not genuine at all Their generosity does not come out from their sincere sympothy for the weak; instead they do so just because they don't want to feel uneasy. So the author describe their actions like: “their works are done as an apology or extenuation of theit ling in the world Their virtues are penences. ” They don’t think helping others is pleasing; instead they feel uncomfortable.

What is real virtue? Every one live for themselves. They help the other out of their true sympothy not just for spectacle. Everyone should live easily and it is not so necessary to give themselves too much pressure. Don’t force yourselves to do what you don’t want to do. “I ask primary evidence that you are a man, and refuse this appeal from the man to his action. Everyonen should not care so much of what their virtues will bring them. Do just according to their own will, neglecting the commants from the others. 

3.      Why does the author dislike “consistency”? Do you agree with him? Do you think that people should give up consistency? (P.22)

   Just as “The Confidence”, “The Independence” is also a significant idea which Emerson showed in the works. “The Independence” is closely related with the spirit of self-reliance.

Each person should act according to what he thinks. According to Emerson’s original words: “what I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think” Emerson thought that the people shouldn’t be influenced by the others. Each one is the first who knows himself much. It is known that the only right is to conform to the man’s own will, namely, the only wrong thing is what is against his own will. Emerson supported that the people insist on carrying themselves in the face of all opposition.

Generally speaking, many people are easily influenced by environment. Emerson sharply opposed this idea in Self-Reliance. He thought the man should cultivate the personality of self-independence. Emerson expressed another kind of viewpoint, that is, consistency, which is in large scale the other terror that scares us from self-trust. He once said: “A reverence for our past act or word, because the eyes of others have no other data for computing our orbit than our past acts, and we are loath to disappoint them”. (Emerson, P22, 2005) Indeed, a large number of person always cope with their lives in the same way, because they are afraid of being defeated by new methods. However, they are lack of innovation, which makes them lack of self-independence. Because of their consistency, it is very difficult for them to make progress or stride in life.

4.  What is the agreement of one’s actions? Why is it important for people? (P.23)

The agreement of one’s action means that we should act according to our own will. Don’t care too much about the feedback from the external environment. Perhaps, our actions or behaviors are not in agreement temporatily, in another word, perhaps, the others have misunerstaood our behaviors; so long as we behave or act singly, according to our own will, our actions will be justified by themselves, and the others will gradually understand us, neglecting the misunderstanding in the middle. In one word, we should not pay much attention to the trivals in life. Try to be self-dependent and self-derived, don't be so easily hurt by the others. Your acrtions will expain youreself.

It is important for people to maintain the agreement of their actions. Here, infact the author is emphasizing the importance of the self-confidence and self-dependence. One should keep their own personality, overcome the tendency of consistency. Otherwise, they will lose their own feature. Besides, if they often change according to the other’s comments, they can not generate spmething unique or different from the others. In other words, they will lose the innovative ability.