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Henry David Thoreau(July 12, 1817 – May 6,1862)

American eayist, poet, naturalist, philosopher,and leading transcendentalist.Thoreau was afriend andthetruest disciple / follower of Emerson.He put into practice many of Emerson’s theories.He personally practiced what Emerson preached.Emerson believed that human beings could live in a very simple way, a way from the extravangances and confusions from big cities, and Henry David Thoreau went into the woods, lived on the Walden pond for more than two years, practice Emrson’s ideas.Thoreau is considered one of the most influential figures in American thought and literature.That man is the richest whose pleasure are the cheapest.----by Thoreau

The leon he taught himself, and which he tried to teach others, was summed in the one word ―simplify‖(simplify the outward circumstances of your life, simplify your needs and your ambitions, learn to delight in the simple pleasures which the world of nature affords.And unlike most who advocate such attitudes, he put them into practice.a.Born in Concord in 1817, graduated at Harvard University in1837.b.During his stay with Emerson, Thoreau experienced what was to be the nearest he ever came to “falling in love.” He and his brother John both found, or thought themselves, in love with Ellen after they paid a visit to her in the summer of 1840.Each, without telling the other, proposed marriage.Ellen was disposed to accept Henry, bur yielded to the objections of her father.c.In 1845, he built a cabin on some land belonging to Emerson by Walden Pond and moved in to live a very simple manner for a little over two years, which gave birth to a great transcendentalist work Walden(1854).d.Active in social life and had a strong sense of justice.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 eay named “Civil Disobedience” which advocated paive resistance to unjust laws and influenced Gandhi in India.On July 25, 1846, Thoreau ran into the local tax collector, who asked him to pay six years of delinquent poll taxes.Thoreau refused because of his opposition to the Mexican-American War and slavery, and he spent a night in jail because of this refusal.Piles of stones: People from all over the world come here to pay tribute to Thoreau.They pick up stones and put it here to show their respect for this person.Walden

 author· Henry David Thoreau

 type of work· Eay

 genre· Autobiography;moral philosophy;natural history;social criticism

 time and place written· 1845–1854, Walden Pond, near Concord, Maachusetts

 date of first publication· 1854

 narrator· Henry David Thoreau

 Walden: 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 interest 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 where

he put Emerson's Transcendental doctrines into practice in the actual life. It is a diary of a nature-lover containing eays of aself-reliant character. He appeals to the primitive instinct that lies close to the heart of every man. He saw nature as a genuine restorative , healthy influence on man’s spiritual well-being,andregarded it as a symbol of spirit. Do not hire a man who does your work for money, but him who does it for love of it. Go confidently in the direction of your dreams!

 Live the life you’ve imagined.As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be

simpler. If you would convince a man that he does wrong, do right.Men will believe what they

see. Men are born to succeed, not fail. Men have become the tools of their tools.Contents(14 parts)

 1.Economy

 2. 3.Reading4.Sounds5.Solitude6.Visitors7.The Bean-Field8.The Village

 9.The Ponds10.Baker Farm11.Higher Laws12.Brute Neighbors

 13.House-Warming14.Former Inhabitants and Winter Visitors

 15.Winter Animals16.The Pond in Winter17.Spring18.Conclusion

Walden

 It came out of Thoreau’s two-year experiment at Walden Pond.It strees the importance

of thought over material circumstance.He believed that there was the poibility for and

importance of change in one’s spiritual life which is in harmony with nature.Emerson’s best friend.Thoreau’s ideas embodied in his Walden

1.He saw nature as a genuine restorative healthy influence on man’s spiritual well-being, and

regarded it as a symbol of spirit.He firmly believes that ―nature objects and phenomena are

the original symbols or types which expre our thoughts and feelings.‖ He was seen lost in

contemplation of the world around.沃尔登中的第一个重要观点是：自然当作是真正的能

够帮助人恢复本真的，具有教育意义的，精神的象征。坚信自然界中的一切和我们看到的表象的世界充满了最本真最原始的象征，它们都能表达出我们的思想和我们的感情。

So Walden is a faithful record of his reflections when he was in solitary communion with nature,an eloquent indication that he not only embraced Emerson’s Transcendentalist philosophy but

went even further to illustrate the pantheistical quality of nature.沃尔登湖是他自己在自然界感

受自然体验自然最真实的记录。它不仅仅是拥护爱默生的超验主义的哲学思想，而且更进一

步解释了自然的本身。

2.Thoreau has faith in the inner virtue and inward, spiritual grace of man.He holds that the

most important thing for men to do with their lives is to be self-sufficient and strive to achieve

personal spiritual perfection.So he has been regarded as a prophet of individualism in

American literature.他相信人内在的美德或者是精神。他认为对人来说最重要的事情就是自助。人应该能够自我完善。他被看作是在美国文学当作强调个人主义的一个先驱。

3.Thoreau was very critical of modern civilization.It was, in his opinion, degrading and enslaving man.As he saw it, modern civilized life had dehumanized man and placed him in a spiritual quandary.表现出对现代文明的怀疑。在他看来，现代文明实际上是把人的本性降低了，人成为了机器的奴隶。现代文明的发展，机器的发展，使人丧失了人一些本真的东西，使人在精神上感到空虚和寂寞。

4． In his opinion, spiritual richne is real wealth.只有精神上的富有才是真正的财富。

5.Walden exhibits Thoreau’s calm trust in the future and his ardent belief in a new generation of men.对未来的一种信任，对后一代人充满了希望。

这本书反映出人与自然的神性。他不仅是爱默生的忠实信徒，他是一个泛神主义——把自然界的万物都具有神性。他坚定地认为自然界中的万物都是具有象征意义的，它能表达出我们的思想和感情。沃尔登的文体特征，在美国文学史上是非常著名的。

Chapter Two :Major Purposes

 To make the reader evaluate the way he lived and thought

 To reveal the hidden spiritual poibilities in everyone’s life

 To condemn the weaknees and errors of society

 ―I do not propose to write an ode to dejection, but to brag as lustily as chanticleer in the

morning, standing on his roost, if only to wake my neighbors up.‖

—— Henry David Thoreau

Chief Subjects

 Concerned with living(the eentials of life)rather than getting a living

 Condemning making social improvement and comfort all important

 Streing the importance of thought over material circumstance

 Advocating that individual freedom breaks down the rules and barriers of society

 Streing the escape from temporal life into the life of eternity

 Streing spiritual life which is in harmony with nature

Philosophical Thinking

 Seeing nature as a genuine restorative, healthy influence on man’s spiritual well-being  Disgusted with ―the inundations of the dirty institutions of men’s odd-fellow society‖. Hating human injustice

 Criticizing modern civilization

 Advocation simplicity

 Believing in self-culture and human perfectibility

 Exhibiting a calm trust in the future and a new generation of men

《瓦尔登湖》至少有五种读法：

 1.作为一部自然的书籍；

 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。

——哈丁

内容提要

选篇摘自《沃尔登》中的第二篇文章“我生活的地方；我为何生活”。为了实践他的超验主义哲学，梭罗曾在马萨诸塞州康科德附近的沃尔登湖畔自建木屋，靠采集野菜、野果，自种

豆类而维持生活长达两年之久。他在沃尔登湖畔的生活和思考使他得以完成两部最重要的著作：《在康科德与梅里马克河上一周》（A week on the Concord and Merrimack River, 1849）和《沃尔登》（Walden, 1854）。《沃尔登》由18篇文章组成，记录了他所观察到的自然以及他建造木屋、耕种土地、招待朋友等生活情况。书中讴歌了人类与自然的和谐生活，倡导个人主义、自力更生、物质节俭。他试图将身体的物质需要缩小到最低限度，以便在读书、思考、观察自然与自我当中获得更大的精神财富和自由。他也呼吁人们过最简朴的生活，以便节约时间和精力来“过深层次的生活，吮吸出生活的精髓”。他努力发掘美国自然环境在人类教养、心灵塑造等方面的潜能，强调所有人都应该有充分的自由来选择独一无二的生活方式，将自己的生活做成诗、当作艺术。他向人们展示出闲暇、沉思、与大自然和谐共处等的种种益处，为美国自然作家的写作开了先河。在《沃尔登》的数篇文章中，梭罗对工作和闲暇的意义进行了颇有独创性的思考，并描述了自己在尽可能简朴地、自给自足地生活方面所做的实验，强调这项简朴生活的试验绝不是无所事事地与世隔绝。在这些文章中，梭罗描述了林中生活的细节：他与各种各样的小动物的接触；不同季节中树木与水的不同声音、气味和颜色；大风吹动电报线以及远方的火车汽笛所奏出的旋律等。梭罗在沃尔登湖畔日复一日的切身经历使该书有极大的真实感，而文章清晰、直截了当，但又不失文雅的风格，使《沃尔登》达到了文学经典作品的水平。

赏析

选篇分为两部分：第一部分描述了梭罗对于家园的总体态度和一般寻求，主要刻画了寻找家园的心理过程和精神满足；第二部分则具体描述梭罗在沃尔登湖畔的家园，以及这一家园与大自然的融合。

在第一部分，梭罗仔细勘察了许多农场；他用“survey”一词来暗指他本人土地测量员的身份（surveyor），说自己是所有勘察测量过的土地的君王。梭罗在想象中买下了无数农场，他用商业语言描述了购买农场的过程，但金钱交换实际上并未发生，发生的只是精神财富的增加。他没有买下农场，但保留了景色；就像诗人一样，用韵律这一隐形的篱笆，圈住了农场，得到了田园的精华。在以上描述中，梭罗用日常生活的语言，发掘出了深层的意义。他以“自然诗人”的敏感细腻，改变了通常以人为中心的思维模式，将大自然放到了最重要的地位。他喜欢破旧的房屋、倒塌的栅栏，因为这使他远离以前的房客，而更接近自然；他喜爱空心的树木，因为这说明他的邻居将是啃啮树木的兔子。他用一个双关词“committed”告诉人们，要过自由、无拘无束“uncommitted”的生活。因为贪婪而受到农场的束缚、而过份投入到农场的事务，就无异开关进牢笼。

在选篇的第二部分，梭罗具体描述了他自己在沃尔登湖畔建立的家园。他所建造的木屋只能遮雨，不能挡风。但在他看来，穿堂而过的风声恰恰是大地音乐的天国乐章，是未被打断的创世纪的诗篇。他与鸟为邻，但并非像一般人一样，将鸟关在笼子里；恰恰相反，他将“关自己的笼子”放在离鸟近的地方。他的这一实践和描述大大影响了现代的自然保护主义者：在现代的野生公园里，野生动物可以四处游荡，而游人则只能在笼子里观赏。梭罗的情感与大自然完全交融，他因此而生活在最吸引他的地方和时代：他的家坐落在宇宙中一个隐秘、常新、未受亵渎的角落。

梭罗的创作表现出对于声音、意象、深层意义、词的细微差别等的高度敏感。他的写作风格乍看起来平铺直叙、直截了当，但实际上，各种巧妙的比喻、词源上的双关语、典故的运用、对传统谚语的灵活运用等使通常的意义发生了变化或者扭曲，使读者不得不对作品进行重新思考、重新评价。例如在以上选篇中，他将山峰比喻为天国造币厂所铸造的纯蓝色（true-blue，又有不退色的蓝色或忠诚的含义）的硬币，将天国、自然与人间联系起来。他将自己比喻为将大地和天空扛在肩上的阿特拉斯，但他所扛起的却是精神的大地和天空。他说诸神之家奥林波斯只不过是无处不在的大地的外表，这既赋予世上万物以灵气，又将诸神

融入了自然与人间。

Appreciating “Where I live, What I live for”

1.Had Thoreau ever bought a farm? Why did he enjoy the act of buying?

2.Is it significant that Thoreau mentioned the Fourth of July as the day on which he began to stay in the woods?

3.How do you understand “I am Monarch of all survey,My right there is none to dispute.‖

4.Where indeed did Thoreau live, both at a physical level and at a spiritual level?

5.Can you discern some modernistic significancein this eay?(ecological balance, environmental protection, a prophet who foresees the problems of environment)论文入手点

6.Compare Thoreau’s ideas with Chinese

claical philosophical ideas , can you find out

some similarities?（天人合一，人与自然和谐）

林雨堂先生在《论生活的重要性》中写道：―就其整个人生观来说，梭罗在美国作家中最具中国情趣。作为中国人，我感觉与梭罗心心相通。我可以将梭罗的文字译成中文，把它们当作中国诗人的诗作向国人展示。没有人会产生怀疑。‖比较文学的视野

A Comparison with Tao Yuanming

少无适俗韵，性本爱丘山。误落尘网中，一去三十年。

羁鸟恋旧林，池鱼思故渊。开荒南野际，守拙归田园。

方宅十余亩，草屋八九间。榆柳荫后椋，桃李罗堂前。

暧暧远人村，依依墟里烟。狗吠深巷中，鸡鸣桑树颠。

户庭无尘杂，虚室有余闲。久在樊笼里，复得返自然。陶渊明的《归园田居》之一，这是一首著名的田园诗，是作者辞官回乡后的次年写下的。诗的开篇说，年轻时就没有适应世俗的性格，生来就喜爱大自然的风物。“误落尘网中”，很有些自责追悔的意味。以“尘网”比官场，见出诗人对污浊官场的鄙夷和厌恶。

“羁鸟”、“池鱼”都是失去自由的动物，陶渊明用来自喻，表明他正像鸟恋归林、鱼思故渊一样地思恋美好的大自然，回到自然，也即重获自由。那么生计如何维持呢？“开荒南野际”就可以弥补以前的过失，得以“守拙归园田”了。

接下来描述恬淡自然、清静安谧的田园风光。虽然陶渊明从小生活在庐山脚下，这里的丘山、村落原本十分熟悉，但这次是挣脱官场羁绊，从樊笼尘网中永远回到自由天地，所以有一种特殊的喜悦之情和清新之感。他后顾前瞻，远眺近观，方宅、草屋、榆柳、桃李、村落、炊烟，以至深巷狗吠、桑颠鸡鸣、无不是田园实景，又无一不构成诗人胸中的真趣。

“暖暖”，远景模糊；“依依”，轻烟袅袅。在这冲淡静谧之中，加几声鸡鸣狗吠，越发点染出乡居生活的宁静幽闲。

结尾四句由写景而写心，“虚室”与“户庭”对应，既指空闲寂静的居室，又指诗人悠然常闲的心境。结尾两句“久在樊笼里，复得返自然”回应了诗的开头。这里显示的人格，即非别墅隐士，又非田野农夫。罢官归隐的士大夫有优越的物质生活，锄禾田间的农夫缺乏陶渊明的精神生活，所以陶渊明是真正能领略自然之趣、真正能从躬耕劳作中获得心灵安适的诗人和哲人。

“返自然”是这首诗的中心题旨。它是诗人人生理想，也是这组田园诗的主旋律。

【作者小传】：

陶渊明(365-427)字元亮，浔阳柴桑（今属江西）人。曾作过一些地方的小官，任彭泽令仅八十余日就弃官归隐。他是我国古代一位伟大的诗人，其诗的艺术成就很高，对我国诗歌发展产生了广泛影响。有《靖节先生集》。

(Thoreau’s style is)more primitive and Homeric than any American, his style of thinking

was robust, racy, as if Nature herself had built his sentences and seasoned the sense of his paragraphs with his own vigor and salubrity.Nothing can be spared from them;there is nothing superfluous;all is compact, concrete, as Nature is.— Bronson Alcott

 Lucid, simply wrought, and unpretentious

 Told by a credible and forthright first person narrator who seeks to give the truth of his

experience at Walden Pond

 As innovative and free as his social thought;A private writer hungering for a large

audience;Prophetic Voice

 A subtle punster and ironist

 Using poetic device in a casual and easygoing tone

 Allusion

 Direct forceful sentence

 Conversational in tone

 Humor

 Proverbial expreions

 Brief tales, fables and allegories

 Metaphors

Controversies Over Thoreau

 Pros

 ―People — very wise in their own eyes — whowould have every man’s life ordered

according to a particular pattern, and who are intolerant of every existence the utility of which is not palpable to them, may pooh-pooh Mr.Thoreau and this episode in his history, as unpractical and dreamy.‖

—— George Eliot

 Cons

 ―Skulker‖—— James Ruell Lowell

 ―Wicked and heathenish‖

 “Anti-social”

 ―Nullifier of civilization‖

 Influences

 One of the most influential figures in American thought and literature both for the modern

clarity of his prose style and the prescience of his views on nature and politics

 American’s greatest prose stylist, naturalist, pioneer ecologist, conservationist, visionary,and humanist. One of the first American supporters of Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution streing the

linkage of all living things and the dynamic ecology of the natural world

 An environmentalist advocating the conservation of natural resources on private land and

of preserving wilderne as public land

 A supreme individualist championing the human spirit against materialism and social

conformity