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Mason Fields
Portfolio
Professor Miles
English 131
12 December, 2011
Recalling the Wild
In his essay Walking, Henry David Thoreau expresses an impassioned
distaste for civilized life and progress as we know it. Fully expressing his
transcendental view of the world in his time, he predicts much of what we
can see around us in the present day. This essay was surely not meant to be
prophetic, but in the present day we can see his predictions and how they
have unfolded. From the spread of civilization to a point where it is next to
impossible for a city dweller to find true nature to the sedentary lifestyle, we
can see his views on a grander scale today. In Walking Thoreau preaches
for a nonconformist lifestyle and approaches anarchism with some of his
ideas as he argues that cultivation is the root of evil and states his appeal for
a return to a wilder, more simplistic way of living.
Thoreau begins this work with an explanation of his personal definition
of walking. He declares, For every walk is a sort of crusade, preached by
some Peter the Hermit in us, to go forth and reconquer this Holy Land from
the hands of the infidels (par. 2). He also gives a list of requirements to be
met, almost like a checklist of life requirements, to signify that one is ready
for this spiritual journey, such as, If you are ready to leave father and

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mother, and brother and sister, and wife and child and friends, and never see
the againif you have paid your debts, and made your will, and settled all
your affairs, and are a free man, then you are ready for a walk(par. 3).
Thoreau describes the mere act of walking as more of a reflective or spiritual
action. He also relates an inability to understand the capability of the
workers of his time to stay confined to their shops for long periods of time,
stating I think that they deserve some credit for not having all committed
suicide long ago (par. 6). In this first section, he also likens the walker to a
camel ruminating as he walks and the walking itself as medicine needing to
be taken for health and well-being. He finishes this first portion strong as he
compares a worldly man and his surveyor seeking a post hole in the midst
of paradise(par. 15) and begins to realize that the surveyor assisting the
man is Satan, once again, elegantly portraying progress and cultivation as
the devils work. Possibly the most prophetic statement that Thoreau makes
in the entirety of this essay is the following:
At present, in the vicinity, the best part of the land is not private; the
landscape is not owned, and the walker enjoys comparative freedom.
But possibly the day will come when it will be partitioned off into socalled pleasure-grounds, in which a few will take a narrow and
exclusive pleasure only, when fences shall be multiplied, and mantraps and other engines invented to confine men to the public road,
and walking over the surface of Gods earth shall be construed to
mean trespassing on some gentlemans grounds. (par. 20).

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As we look around the world today, there are abundant examples of exactly
this happening in the 150 years since Thoreau documented his notion.
In the second portion of this essay, Thoreau begins by writing of
direction. Thoreau states that he prefers to let the subtle magnetism in
nature (par. 21) choose his path for him, for man in his stupidity would
choose the wrong path. He writes of the directions east and west relating
them to the past and future, east being the direction of history and leading
back to Europe and west being the direction of enterprise as well as of the
future and adventure from the east light from the west life(par. 29). In this
section he goes on to speak of the Americas, their bounty as well as their
beauty, and generally expresses his pride in country. To the true
Transcendentalist, the budding Americas would have represented a new start
and everything the movement stood for. The New World represented a return
to pure living, i.e. the lack of industry, being forced to be more in tune with
their natural surroundings, not to mention living off the land rather than
bending the land to our will as a race. Thoreau goes on in this section to
express his hopes for the future, remarking that if the heavens of America
appear infinitely higher, and stars brighter, I trust that these facts are
symbolic of the height to which the philosophy and poetry and religion of her
inhabitants may one day soar(par. 32). It would seem in the present day
that his wishes have been realized, although some in far more grievous
fashion than he would have expected.

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Moving into section three of this piece of literature, Thoreau begins by

relating his idea of the West to the wild. Thoreau explains that in Wildness is
the preservation of the world. Every tree sends its fibers forth in search of
the Wild. The cities import it at any price (par. 38). He then makes a point
that should be taken far more serious by todays overindulged society shortly
after this when he asserts, There is a difference between eating and
drinking for strength and from mere gluttony (par. 38). It would seem at this
point in our history in this country that we as a people have realized the
majority of Thoreaus fears and have fallen far short of his great expectations
for our serenity and joy. We as a people race to be at the forefront of
technology and enterprise; ever farther do we move from the wildness and
the natural, as we diligently stride away from our own true nature as part of
the food chain. We move closer to annihilation in a technological society as
we continue to create greater imbalance, not only in the environment but in
ourselves as creatures belonging to, but not in control of this world. Thoreau
boldly states, Hope and the future for me, is not in lawns and cultivated
fields, not in towns and cities, but in the impervious and quaking swamps
(par. 42). In this ever advancing world we live in today, full of smog and
pollutants that cause new diseases each day, we are truly just players on a
stage that may soon crumble beneath our feet. There is still a ghostly
shadow of our wild past in us though some part hidden deep within all
people. If there werent, there would be no war, no murder, no thievery or

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rape. There is a deeper, darker, center to the human race that when tapped
can evoke fear and sometimes excitement also related here:
In literature it is only the wild that attracts us. Dullness is but another
name for tameness. It is the uncivilized free and wild thinking in
hamlet and the Iliad, in all the Scriptures and Mythologies, not
learned in schools that delight us. As the wild duck is more swift and
beautiful than the tame, so is the wild-the mallard-thought, natural,
which mid falling dews wings its way above the fens. A truly good
book is something as natural, and unexpectedly and unaccountably fair
and perfect, as a wild flower discovered on the prairies of the west or
the jungles of the east. (par. 50)
As a race we do seem to lean towards the uncivilized, but merely for
entertainment and as a respite from our normal advanced and dreary lives,
trudging endlessly through our man-made world and our organized,
scheduled, over-controlled lives. Perhaps we could return to a state, and
perception of nature as Thoreau describes vividly, Here is the vast, savage,
howling mother of ours, Nature, lying all around, with such beauty, and such
affection for her children, as a leopard; and yet we are so early weaned from
her breast to society(par. 65), if we as a people, could begin to respect this
world that sustains us, perhaps we could even stall the downward
progression we have happily flung ourselves into.

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This brings us to the fourth section of Thoreaus essay and the

conclusion of an idea. In this section he begins to relate the ignorance in
brilliance that is man. The truth, the more ingenious we believe ourselves to
be and the more we discover, the farther we get from the basic truths of our
race and existence. We continue to find ways to rationalize the pollution and
the destruction of natural resources for progress. We make new medications
to cure diseases we cause. We buy purifiers for the air and water we have
destroyed, and we plant a tree on the corner of an exhaust-filled city block to
give ourselves the illusion of nature in a cultivated world. Thoreau states an
interesting contrast for this unfortunate cause and effect, For what is most
of our boasted so-called knowledge but a conceit that we know something,
which robs us of the advantage of our actual ignorance? What we call
knowledge is often out positive ignorance; ignorance of our negative
knowledge (par. 71). He further expresses his opinion of man and the world
when he comments, In their relation to nature men appear to me for the
most part, notwithstanding the arts, lower than the animals (par. 77). In
relation to this, what other creature, aside from man, would destroy the very
place they live and call it progress?
Throughout Thoreaus essay he makes many well written points that
society today could learn from if so inclined. If the whole of the world today
could keep their minds open and think about the vision that this one man
had so many years ago, there would be a chance to heal many of the issues
we have in todays world. Issues ranging from warring over borders to lung

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cancer could be affected by people with open minds and the determination
to simplify life as we know it. Antidepressants and stimulants have the
potential to become a part of mankinds past rather than our future. The
problem with this idea is that it is only an idea, a pipe-dream. There have
been many individuals, activist groups, even legislators with similar ideas
that have all failed. Mankind will always look back on how natural the world
once was with regret as we move inevitably towards the edge of oblivion.
Just as Thoreau stated, we as humans in our own stupidity will inevitably take
the wrong path, whether it be walking in an individual sense or the general
path of our progression as a race.

Work Cited
Thoreau, Henry David. Editor Jone Johnson Lewis. Walking Transcendentalist .com.
Accessed
12 December 2011. Web.