Henry David Thoreau - Walden: Chapter 11

Henry David Thoreau - Walden: Chapter 11

1. Summary

   • Analysis
   • On his way home one night, the narrator experienced a sudden feeling of animality and wildness. He sees a woodchuck and is overcome by a primitive temptation "to seize and devour him raw." He says that the same wildness within the animal is what he truly desires, not its flesh. This is the same urge for wildness that draws him to fishing. He realized that this animal instinct was still a very big part of him and states that if he were to live in the wilderness, he "should again be tempted to become a fisher and hunter in earnest."
     • He reflects on how he hunted he hunted in his youth and describes the pleasure he took in it and goes on to say the he still believes it is valuable for young men so that they may come into contact with nature. However, since then the narrator has given up hunting for animals in exchange for more "spiritual" game. He sees this change in his desire to hunt as a natural response to his own growth as a man and he advises parents reading the text to encourage similar growth in their boys, that they may be hunters.
       • Still, even though he had given up hunting, he begins feeling ashamed of eating fish. He believed that the imagination and the body "should both sit down at the same table" without disapproval of each other. He argues to himself that bread and potatoes could sustain him just as well without the filth that comes with eating fish. In reality, he does not care about the food he is eating, but the appetite that comes with it. That same night, after John Farmer has retired for the day, he hears someone playing a flute.
         • This flute he heard was played by Thoreau down at the pond, an artistic creation that parallels Walden. John Farmer is a representation of a true regular man in his moment of spiritual awakening. When he hears the music, he realizes there is more to life than work as the parts of him that were "slumbering" are now revived as his animal life is put to sleep in its place. He decides to practice austerity and let his mind redeem his body.
         • Thoreau's sensuality greatly upsets him and he feels he must overcome his nature, which is out of character for him as a Transcendentalist as it is more likely for him to seek out the divine in nature. However, when it comes to human nature, he believes he would be better off bleached of it. He finds his appetite unclean and worries himself about liking food too much and feels he must practice asceticism to cleanse himself of it.
       • Thoreau believes that, despite his current conflict, that his background with hunting as a child has greatly benefitted him in his growth as a man and that all boys would be better off for growing up doing the same. He believes this will teach them self-discipline without indidulgence.
     • As stated in the chapter, "nature is hard to be overcome, but she must be overcome." This is the idea that the narrator ponders on as nature and the spirit of it are embedded within him. However, here he is claiming that spirit is superior to his animal instinct, showing how the two are at odds. He must confront this conflict within him so that the two may continue to exist peacefully. He fears that while he holds the spirit at a higher regard, he might be giving up his relationship with nature.

2. Transcendentalist Philosophy/Traits

   • Nature - Thoreau often turns to nature as a way to answer the questions he can answer himself. Even just considering the conflict within him, it is due to a division of the two sides of his natural instincts and how they can live in harmony with his spirit.
   • Asceticism - Thoreau believes in severe self-discipline so that he may flush out the parts of him that he may reach a higher state of being and might become advanced in his spirituality.
   • Isolation - Thoreau feels comforted in his surroundings in that he is alone with nature and the creatures that exist within it for like other Transcendentalists, he believes there can only be individual truths and one must be alone to discover them.