The last one, I promise.
I mentioned in the past the I wrote about Walden for a scholarship from the Elementary Institute of Science. In that essay, I mentioned a path that Thoreau wrote about, which I’m going to share in this post.
First, here’s the passage:
I left the woods for as good a reason as I went there. Perhaps it seemed to me that I had several more lives to live, and could not spare any more time for that one. It is remarkable how easily and insensibly we fall into a particular route, and make a beaten track for ourselves. I had not lived there a week before my feet wore a path from my door to the pond-side; and though it is five or six years since I trod it, it is still quite distinct. It is true, I fear that others may have fallen into it, and so helped to keep it open. The surface of the earth is soft and impressible by the feet of men; and so with the paths which the mind travels. How worn and dusty, then, must be the highways of the world, how deep the ruts of tradition and conformity! I did not wish to take a cabin passage, but rather to go before the mast and on the deck of the world, for there I could best see the moonlight amid the mountains. I do not wish to go below now.
I learned this, at least, by my experiment; that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. He will put some things behind, will pass an invisible boundary; new, universal, and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves around and within him; or the old laws be expanded, and interpreted in his favor in a more liberal sense, and he will live with the license of a higher order of beings. In proportion as he simplifies his life, the laws of the universe will appear less complex, and solitude will not be solitude, nor poverty poverty, nor weakness weakness. If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them (314).
As Walden draws to a close, Thoreau revisits the reason why he came to stay at Walden in the first place. Before, Thoreau mentioned that he came to Walden to “live deliberately,” to reduce his life down to the bare minimum in order to achieve a higher sense of being and thought (68). However, in one of the closing chapters of Walden, Thoreau adds another level of reasoning as to why he came to Walden, using an analogy -- comparing his life to a path -- to help explain his thoughts.
Thoreau describes a worn path between his humble and the pond for which his novel is named after, a “beaten track” that remains distinguishable even after “five or six years” of disuse (314). This path, which is “soft and impressible by the feet of men” is analogous to the “paths which the mind travels” (314); Thoreau claims that it is easy for individuals to conform to society’s standards, falling into well-known paths and patterns. Mobs of people may follow the same path through life with ease. Thoreau himself claims that it is easy to fall into the deep “ruts of tradition and conformity” (314). And yet, Thoreau forced himself to leave the life he lived before, leaving the comfortable home he had in Concord, Massachusetts, to attempt something new, something novel and nontraditional (Biography.com). Thoreau at Concord believed that he could learn something new by changing his life completely, by trying a whole different approach to life. He left Concord and came to Walden to learn. In that same sense, Thoreau at Walden after a certain amount of time believed that he had enough, and that it was time again to change his life. Although this decision to leave was difficult, Thoreau “had several more lives to live,” several more aspects of life to explore, and so Thoreau left “the woods for as good a reason as [he] went there” (314). Comparing his mindset to the worn path by Walden captures the essence of making decisions and falling into routines: once a pattern has been established -- whether it be walking down the same path every day or living in the same lifestyle -- it becomes difficult to break free from that pattern. Nevertheless, there may be rewards for breaking from the cycle. Thoreau claims that the “surface of the earth is soft and impressible,” easy to mold and to shape into a path (314); in that same sense, it is easy to mold and shape one’s mental path. Butonce a behavior or a path has been settled, it is difficult to break free. Thoreau remarks on how old, how deep, and how powerful the paths of a traditional society must be, well worn and molded by thousands and thousands of people conforming to its standards.
Moreover, Thoreau highlights the rewards associated with breaking free from society’s standards: without breaking free from his established path, Thoreau would have never come to Walden to reap the benefits of living in nature. Thoreau breaks free from all expectation and becomes a captain of his own life. Describing this change in his life as a chance to “go before the mast and on the deck of the world” evokes the notion of Thoreau as a captain of a ship (314), sailing away from all societal expectations and to his own destiny. This change for him, described as a path to “best see the moonlight amid the mountains,” emphasizes how fortunate Thoreau is to break free (314). Thoreau then recommends individuals to “advance confidently in the direction of [their] dreams,” to achieve success by their own ways and means (314). Comparing Thoreau’s decision in life to the earthen path near his pond clarifies the reasoning behind Thoreau’s decision to break free from society’s expectations and describes the benefits of choosing not to conform to any standards.
Thoreau connects the last few chapters of Walden to many themes and ideas he addresses in the beginning of his book. Firstly, Thoreau shows how society makes it difficult for individuals to break free and walk on their own path; describing the physical path near Walden Pond and then speculating about the deep ruts of tradition in society show how such patterns can be stronger than gravity, holding individuals back from their full potential. Then, Thoreau stresses how living deliberately and how living in the woods benefitted him tremendously: Thoreau took charge of his own life, Thoreau was not a slave to his work nor to society, and Thoreau reaped the benefits. Additionally, this passage serves as a reminder that living deliberately and pushing towards success will allow individuals to also live with the “license of a higher order of beings” (314). In his description of new and liberal boundaries, Thoreau claims that moving deliberately towards self-improvement and success lends itself to spiritual development; as individuals push themselves -- both away from society’s standards and towards success -- they will also push through “invisible boundaries,” and laws will expand and become liberal to help this individual (314). This changing of laws makes complicated things less complex: Thoreau claims that “solitude will not be solitude, nor poverty poverty, nor weakness weakness” (314), which is reinforced by his anecdotes and musings in previous chapters. In the woods, Thoreau realizes that he does not feel lonely and does not feel any need for company. In the woods, although Thoreau may be poor compared to the life he lived before, in Concord, he has gained much in intellectual wealth and knowledge. In the woods and in living deliberately, Thoreau discovers much about himself and the world around him, without interference from any material desires or the strains of society’s standards.
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