Henry David Thoreau

1. Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)

2. contents • Brief introduction to his life • Major works • Beliefs and influences • criticism Walden Civil Obedience

3. Early life and education (1817-1837) • Born: July 12, 1817  , Concord, Massachusetts • college : Harvard University (1833-1837) • Left hometown: taught school in Canton , Massachusetts

4. Return to Concord: 1837-1841 • 1837: joined the faculty of Concord Academy • 1838: worked in his family's pencil factory , • opened a grammar school • 1841-1844 :moved into the Emerson House. served as the children’s tutor, editorial assistant, and repair man/gardener ☆ Made friends with Ralph Waldo Emerson

5. Major works * The Service (1840)* A Walk to Wachusett (1842)* Paradise (to be) Regained (1843)* The Landlord (1843) [1] [2]* Sir Walter Raleigh (1844)* Herald of Freedom (1844)

6. Civil disobedience and the Walden years: 1845–1849 • on 4 July 1845, he moved to a small self-built house on land owned by Emerson in a second-growth forest around the shores of Walden Pond. • On July 24 or July 25, 1846, he spent a night in jail because he refuse to pay six years of delinquent poll taxes. • In January and February of 1848, he delivered lectures on "The Rights and Duties of the Individual in relation to Government”

7. In August 1846, Thoreau briefly left Walden to make a trip to Mount Katahdin in Maine, a journey later recorded in “Ktaadn,” the first part of The Maine Woods. • Thoreau left Walden Pond on 6 September 1847. • In 1854, he published Walden, or Life in the Woods, recounting the two years, two months, and two days he had spent at Walden Pond.

8. Major works * Reform and the Reformers (1846-8) * Thomas Carlyle and His Works (1847) *康科德河和梅里麦克河上的一个星期 A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (1849，1839年？) [3] * 论公民的不服从权利 Resistance to Civil Government, or Civil Disobedience (1849) [4]

9. Late years: (1851-1862 ) • In 1851, Thoreau became increasingly fascinated with natural history and travel/expedition narratives. • He became a land surveyor, and continued to write increasingly detailed natural history observations • Until the 1970s, Thoreau’s late pursuits were dismissed by literary critics as amateur science and philosophy.

10. Major works * An Excursion to Canada (1853) [5] *马萨诸塞州的奴隶制度Slavery in Massachusetts (1854) *瓦尔登湖Walden (1854) *为约翰·布朗上校请愿A Plea for Captain John Brown (1859，1860年？) * Remarks After the Hanging of John Brown (1859) *The Last Days of John Brown (1860) * Walking (1861) [6] [7] * Autumnal Tints (1862) [8] * Wild Apples: The History of the Apple Tree (1862) [9][10]

11. Death (1862) • 1835 : first contracted tuberculosis • Thoreau spent his last years revising and editing his unpublished works, particularly The Maine Woods and Excursions, and petitioning publishers to print revised editions of A Week and Walden. He also wrote letters and journal entries until he became too weak to continue. • He died on 6 May 1862 at the age of 44

12. Major works *远足Excursions (1863) [11] *缅因森林The Maine Woods (1864) [17] [18] * A Yankee in Canada, with Anti-Slavery and Reform Papers (1866) [21] *夏Summer (1884) [22 *冬Winter (1888) [23] * 秋Autumn (1892) [24] * 杂录Misellanies (1894) * Poems of Nature (1895)

13. walden

15. 梭罗的研究专家哈丁说，《瓦尔登湖》至少有五种读法梭罗的研究专家哈丁说，《瓦尔登湖》至少有五种读法 • １．作为一部自然的书 • ２．作为一部自力更生、简单生活的指南 • ３．作为批评现代生活的一部讽刺作品； • ４．作为一部文学名著； • ５．作为一本神圣的书

16. I went to the woods because I wish to live deliberately. To front only the essential facts of live, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach ,and not , when I came to die , discover that I had not lived ——Thoreau

17. “我来到这片树林是因为想过一种省察的生活，去面对人生最本质的问题，看看是否有什么东西是生活会教给我、而我却没有领悟到的，想知道假如我不到这里的话，当我临终的时候，会不会对自己没有经历过的生活毫无察觉。”“我来到这片树林是因为想过一种省察的生活，去面对人生最本质的问题，看看是否有什么东西是生活会教给我、而我却没有领悟到的，想知道假如我不到这里的话，当我临终的时候，会不会对自己没有经历过的生活毫无察觉。” • ——梭罗

18. Each chapter (18 in all) is an essay composed of various incidents that share a similar theme. Various characters and events constitute mini-narratives in the text. These situations contribute to the whole experience contained in Walden-that of a man learning to live in nature as simply as possible.

19. 章节 • 经济篇(Economy) • 　 我的生活所在；我的生活追求 / 我生活的地方；我为何生活(Where I Lived, and What I Lived For) • 　　 阅读(Reading) • 　　 声音 / 声(Sounds ) • 　　 孤独 / 寂寞(Solitude) • 　　 访客(Visitors) • 　　 豆田 / 种豆(The Bean-Field) • 　　村子(The Village) • 湖(The Ponds)

20. 贝克田庄(Baker Farm) • 更高的法则 / 更高的规律(Higher Laws) • 禽兽为邻('Brute Neighbors) • 室内取暖(House-warming) • 昔日的居民 / 旧居民；冬天的访客(Former Inhabitants; and Winter Visitors) • 冬天的禽兽(Winter Animals ) • 冬天的湖(The Pond in Winter) • 春天(Spring ) • 结束语(Conclusion)

21. 有一个追求完美的艺术家，有一天他想做一根手杖，他想，凡是完美的作品，其中时间是不存在的，因此他自言自语，哪怕我一生中不再做任何其它的事情，也要把它做得十全十美。他一心一意，锲而不舍，目不他视、心无他想，坚定而又高度虔诚，在这整个工作过程中，他的同伴逐渐离开了他，都死去了，而他在不知不觉中却保持着青春，最后当手杖完成时，它突然辉煌无比，成了梵天世界中最美丽的一件作品。有一个追求完美的艺术家，有一天他想做一根手杖，他想，凡是完美的作品，其中时间是不存在的，因此他自言自语，哪怕我一生中不再做任何其它的事情，也要把它做得十全十美。他一心一意，锲而不舍，目不他视、心无他想，坚定而又高度虔诚，在这整个工作过程中，他的同伴逐渐离开了他，都死去了，而他在不知不觉中却保持着青春，最后当手杖完成时，它突然辉煌无比，成了梵天世界中最美丽的一件作品。

22. The summer is a time of physical activity, as he narrates in great detail his various construction projects and domestic management solutions. • “a time to reap, a time to sow.”

23. in winter that he undertakes the measuring of the pond, which becomes a symbol of plumbing his own spiritual depths in solitude. • Winter is a time of reflection and inwardness

24. The cycle of seasons is thus a cycle of moral and spiritual regeneration made possible by a communion with nature and with oneself.

25. Thoreau regarded his sojourn at Walden as a noble experiment with a threefold purpose.

26. First, he was escaping the dehumanizing effects of the Industrial Revolution by returning to a simpler, agrarian lifestyle.

27. Second, he was simplifying his life and reducing his expenditures, increasing the amount of leisure time in which he could work on his writings

28. Third, and most important, Thoreau was putting into practice the Transcendentalist belief that one can best transcend normality and experience the Ideal, or the Divine, through nature.

29. THEMES • self-realization • simplicity • self-fulfillment.

30. What elevates Walden in modern literature is the depth with which the reader gets to know the narrator simply by being privileged to hear his deepest thoughts and reflections.

31. 　这是一本宁静、恬淡、充满智慧的书。其中分析生活，批判习俗处，语语惊人，字字闪光，见解独特，耐人寻味。许多篇页是形象描绘，优美细致，像湖水的纯洁透明，像山林的茂密翠绿；也有一些篇页说理透彻，十分精辟，给人启迪。　这是一本宁静、恬淡、充满智慧的书。其中分析生活，批判习俗处，语语惊人，字字闪光，见解独特，耐人寻味。许多篇页是形象描绘，优美细致，像湖水的纯洁透明，像山林的茂密翠绿；也有一些篇页说理透彻，十分精辟，给人启迪。

32. 　　这是一本清新、健康、引人向上的书，对于春天，对于黎明，都有极其动人的描写。这里有大自然给人的澄净的空气，而无工业社会带来的环境污染。读着它，读者自然会感觉到心灵的纯净，精神的升华。

33. Civil Disobedience ----Henry David Thoreau

34. Type of Work and Publication • an essay • presented the essay as a lecture in 1848 • published it 1849 under the title "Resistance to Civil Government." • was published under the title "Civil Disobedience in 1866, four years after Thoreau died

35. Issues Discussed • it is the duty of all citizens to disobey unjust government policies. • the continuation of the institution of slavery and the prosecution of the Mexican War (April 1846-February 1848).     

36. Themes • (1) Citizens of good conscience should actively oppose unjust government policies through nonviolent resistance. • (2) Slavery is an evil institution that must be abolished. • (3) The Mexican War is an unjust conflict because it is being fought to acquire new territory in which to establish slavery.

37. (4)Talk means little unless action backs it up. • (5) Citizens must oppose efforts by groups that promote their own selfish interests at the expense of morality, ethics, and individual rights.

38. Thoreau's Influence on Others • Mohandas K. (Mahatma) Gandhi (1869-1948), the great Indian leader • the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

39. Here, in this courageous New Englander's refusal to pay his taxes and his choice of jail rather than support a war that would spread slavery's territory into Mexico, I made my first contact with the theory of nonviolent resistance. Fascinated by the idea of refusing to cooperate with an evil system, I was so deeply moved that I reread the work several times. • I became convinced that noncooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good. No other person has been more eloquent and passionate in getting this idea across than Henry David Thoreau. As a result of his writings and personal witness, we are the heirs of a legacy of creative protest. The teachings of Thoreau came alive in our civil rights movement; indeed, they are more alive than ever before. Whether expressed in a sit-in at lunch counters, a freedom ride into Mississippi, a peaceful protest in Albany, Georgia, a bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama, these are outgrowths of Thoreau's insistence that evil must be resisted and that no moral man can patiently adjust to injustice.[36]

40. Ideas & Influence • Evaluation

41. Ideas & Influence(1) nature • Thoreau was an early advocate of recreational hiking and canoeing, of conserving natural resources on private land, and of preserving wilderness as public land. • Walden (1854) protecting environment balancing the ecosystem the methods and findings of ecology and environmental history the father of natural essay

42. Ideas & Influence(2)life Walden (1854) Simplicity ,simplicity …..simplify • Simple life • Against materialism & modern civilization • For inner virtue and inward ,spiritual grace of man Self –cultivating enriching the spirit

43. 梭罗向往自由自在的生活,在瓦尔登湖畔,他把自己的生活需求降到了最低限度,摒弃了几乎所有的奢侈品,而他的精神生活也因此格外丰富。他在屋边的沙地上种豆,在露天的火上用印第安玉米粉和黑麦焙制面包,划着小船到湖上钓鱼……他在小木屋中读书、思考,同时他观察自然,与自然对话,在自然中探索人生的真谛。夏日整个上午,他坐在阳光下的门前,在松树、山核桃树和黄栌树之间凝神沉思。冬天,他在冰上测量湖的深度,湖水解冻的日子,他到处寻找春天的信号……梭罗与自然的亲近绝对是一种天性。

44. Ideas & Influence (3) Politics Civil Disobedience ----Political view---individualist • To hate the human injustice the slavery system Mahatma Gandhi • Non violence Martin Luther King, Jr That government is best which governs not at all/least • Resistance civil government “the greatest American anarchist”

45. straight forward Concise to the point Other Influence 1.artists and authors including Edward Abbey, Willa Cather, Marcel Proust, William Butler Yeats, Sinclair Lewis, Ernest Hemingway, E. B. White, and Frank Lloyd Wright.(Leo Tolstoy) 2. naturalists like John Burroughs, John Muir, E. O. Wilson, Edwin Way Teale, Joseph Wood Krutch, B. F. Skinner, David Brower and Loren Eiseley, who Publisher's Weekly called "the modern Thoreau." [34] 3.Anarchist and feministEmma Goldman also appreciated Thoreau and referred to him as “the greatest American anarchist.”

46. Evaluation • Thoreau was not without his critics. Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson judged Thoreau’s endorsement of living alone in natural simplicity, apart from modern society, to be a mark of effeminacy(柔弱，女人气): • “the greatest American anarchist”???

47. 对现代科技文明给人们带来的物质享受，梭罗并不排斥，他只是批评我们没有很对现代科技文明给人们带来的物质享受，梭罗并不排斥，他只是批评我们没有很 好地利用它，“弄巧成拙”（improved means unimproved ends），他这样评价 。“我们接通了越洋的电缆，却用它询问阿德莱德王妃（Princess Adelaide）是 否得了咳喘，并未用它交流人类的思想。我们建成了铁路，却坐着它去城里消磨 时光。”从这点上看，梭罗对社会的意义并非仅仅在于批判，而更在于指导。对 社会中存在的问题他会毫不犹豫地揭露，同时也负责任地指出解决问题的方法。 如果我们发现自己根本无法抵御今天这个纷繁复杂的物质世界的引诱，那么最好 的办法就是“Simplify，simplify，simplify.”（简朴，简朴，简朴。）这是梭 罗的口头禅。客观世界和人类社会是复杂的，但我们的知识使我们能够选择一种 正确的生活方式，而且有足够的勇气将其他多余的东西摒弃，全然不顾同时代人 如何对我们指手画脚。 • 梭罗是一个有责任感的社会批评家，他的目的是揭露时代的弊端。指出人们自己 • 正将生活变得越来越复杂，最终会导致生命的衰落。相对来讲，原始社会的人类 • 生活较之现代更加幸福和充实。有的读者往往对梭罗有错误的印象，即他只是一 • 个复古主义者，主张返朴归真回归自然，放弃现代文明。可是我们应该注意到梭 • 罗在瓦尔登湖边的林中独自生活了仅仅两年多一点的时间，这只占他生命的百分 • 之五的光阴。而且在这段时间里，来来往往的访客从未间断。他自己也经常到村 • 里探望家人和朋友。更重要的是，当他离开瓦尔登以后，还曾一再反对别人模仿 • 他的行为。用他的话说他自己之所以到瓦尔登湖生活了一段时间，那完全是他个 • 人的志趣爱好。如果说一个人向往简朴的生活，只要心诚，在哪儿都可以做得到 • ，无论是在纽约、伦敦、孟买或东京。心中有“瓦尔登”我们的生活将会变得更 • 有意义、更有目的、更加幸福，这才是“瓦尔登”的真谛。梭罗本人回到康科德 • 后继续过着简朴的生活，从事写作直至去逝。

48. 梭罗于1837年刚进大学时就曾言，他要将圣经中关于一周工作六天休息一天的教义，改为工作一天休息六天。他在瓦尔登湖的生活经历实现了这一愿望。在那里他仅花28美元多一点儿就建成起了自己的栖身的小木屋，每星期花27美分就足以维持生活。为维持这样简朴的生活，他一年只须工作六个星期就可以挣足一年的生活费用，剩下的46个星期去做自己喜欢做的事情。他没有将这宝贵时光浪费掉，而是把它奉献给写作和自然研究。也许有人会说梭罗太懒，终其一生也并未做出任何惊天动地的事业，但是如果你能注意到他在短暂的一生中创作了二十多部一流的散文集时，就会对他的才华和勤奋发出由衷的赞赏。梭罗于1837年刚进大学时就曾言，他要将圣经中关于一周工作六天休息一天的教义，改为工作一天休息六天。他在瓦尔登湖的生活经历实现了这一愿望。在那里他仅花28美元多一点儿就建成起了自己的栖身的小木屋，每星期花27美分就足以维持生活。为维持这样简朴的生活，他一年只须工作六个星期就可以挣足一年的生活费用，剩下的46个星期去做自己喜欢做的事情。他没有将这宝贵时光浪费掉，而是把它奉献给写作和自然研究。也许有人会说梭罗太懒，终其一生也并未做出任何惊天动地的事业，但是如果你能注意到他在短暂的一生中创作了二十多部一流的散文集时，就会对他的才华和勤奋发出由衷的赞赏。 Evaluation • Thoreau’s content and ecstasy in living was, we may say, like a plant that he had watered and tended with womanish solicitude; for there is apt to be something unmanly, something almost dastardly, in a life that does not move with dash and freedom, and that fears the bracing contact of the world. In one word, Thoreau was a skulker（偷懒的人）. He did not wish virtue to go out of him among his fellow-men, but slunk into a corner to hoard it for himself. He left all for the sake of certain virtuous self-indulgences.[35]