Allusions and References in Walden to the Greek God Antaeus
Like many great authors, both past and present, Henry David Thoreau uses literary techniques not limited to Greek mythological allusions. Throughout his masterpiece, Walden, mythological allusions are made from his ideas of life and his thoughts about his present state of the environment. Thoreau uses a mythological allusion when he states that, “They [the beans] attached me to the earth, and so I got strength like Antaeus.” (Thoreau, 1849) Although Thoreau wrote Walden many centuries after the Greek civilization had been wiped out, the historical use of strength as exemplified in the myth of Antaeus drives many themes throughout Walden.
The giant Antaeus was the child of two great gods. His mother was Gaia, goddess of mother earth, and his father was Poseidon, god of the sea. (Encyclopedia Mythica, 1) Antaeus was said to be the strongest of all the gods. He was King of Lydia and greatly renowned as a great wrestler. As the myth states, Antaeus defeated and killed all who vainly tried to upscale him. It was said that he gained more and more strength every time he touched his mother,-the earth- for she supplied him with never ending strength. Although undefeated for years, Hercules finally was able to defeat him. Hercules knew his strength was contact with the earth. He proceeded to engage in a battle with the undefeated giant. Hercules won the fight by lifting him off the ground, holding him by the neck and strangled the great Antaeus to death. Antaeus couldn’t regain his strength because he had lost contact with the ground- the source of his replenishing strength. (Eddie, 1) Thoreau uses the idea of never ending strength that is derived from the earth throughout Walden.
The earth is symbol of strength throughout the novel. An example of the strength of the earth appears in the first chapter where Thoreau is explaining why he wants to get away from every-day life and live off the land. He decides to live with only the basic necessities of life: clothing shelter, and food. (Thoreau, 1778-1781) All these things he generated with the direct help and strength of the land. He grows his own food and builds a house out of natural elements from the forest. It is the strength of the earth that allows him to rely solely on the terrain.
Henry Thoreau uses specific rhetorical strategies in Walden to emanate his attitude towards life. With the use of many strategies Thoreau shows that life should be centered around Nature. People live their lives not ever taking a second glance of what Nature does and has done for humanity and Thoreau is trying to prove his point. Humanity owes Nature everything for without it humans would be nothing.
19th Century American writers, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, were famous for their portrayal of the wilderness as an unspoiled natural world leading men to spiritual truth and healing. In his novel Walden, Thoreau immersed himself in nature in an effort to gain a more objective understanding of society through personal introspection. The solitude he experienced, similar to Strayed, assisted his philosophical and emotional journey. At the end of Walden, Thoreau observes the seasons’ transition from winter to spring. The revitalization of the landscape from the changing seasons suggests the restoration of the human soul. After two years living in a cabin in the woods, Thoreau reentered society calmer and more self-aware, forgoing past emotional experiences. His transformative experience in a lot of ways mirrors Strayed’s who was also able to feel emotionally stronger as a result of the time spent in
Thoreau, Henry David. "Walden." The Heath Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Paul Lauter. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1998. 2107-2141.
Harton, Ron. "Henry Thoreau as a Model for Nature Writing." 9 August 2009. The Thoreau Reader. Online Document. 17 March 2014. .
Thoreau, among the most heralded writers of the North American continent, may have lived on his little as possible, but the grandeur of his writing style suggest quite the opposite. This does coincide with a key part of Transcendentalism - putting matters of the mind and spirit far above any materialistic preference. Chapter 5 of Thoreau’s memoir Walden explains his reasonings for isolation through several rhetorical strategies that emphasize the splendor of aloneness and nature.
Earth By earth they mean dryland and the ground, which consists of soil, dirt and rocks. The earth signifies form, structure, security and stability. Mother Earth is the ancient spiritual symbol which gave us life and formed all living things (plants, animals, etc.). Earth is what nurtures life, its always stable, solid and almost unchanged.
When thinking about the transcendental period and/or about individuals reaching out and submerging themselves in nature, Henry David Thoreau and his book, Walden, are the first things that come to mind. Unknown to many, there are plenty of people who have braved the environment and called it their home during the past twenty years, for example: Chris McCandless and Richard Proenneke. Before diving into who the “modern Thoreaus” are, one must venture back and explore the footprint created by Henry Thoreau.
There’s this a strong sense of the glorification of nature in the excerpts from Walden. The narrator manages to paint nature as a benevolent, serene being through both his dislike for the complication and pacing
Walden, by Henry David Thoreau is written in first person about the events and ideas that came to the author during his time living at Walden Pond in the eighteen hundreds. Henry David Thoreau was a poet and a philosopher who lived a life of simplicity in order to make a direct connection between people, God, and nature. He viewed knowledge as an "intuitive force rather than a set of learned, logical proofs." His writing in Walden focused on many different themes, including the relationship between light and dark, the ideas and importance of nature, the meaning of progress, the importance of detail, and the relationship between the mind and body. He also developed many philisophical ideas concerning knowing yourself, living simply and deliberately, and seeking truth.
Thoreau adopts an “I” in Walden as a persona, as a way to question different ways of living, and propose different concepts to his readers. His “I” is akin to a Dickinson poem, becoming the voice that guides the readers, but might not necessarily have been shared by the author himself. Schulz attempts to defame Thoreau literary persona by criticizing the fictional aspects of the story. “Read charitably, it is a kind of semi-fictional extended meditation featuring a character named Henry David Thoreau” (Pond Scum). Schulz fails to make the distinction between Thoreau the man and Thoreau the literary character. The “I” in the story is another side of Thoreau that he used to explore different aspects of the world. Thoreau was a vegetarian that ate meat, and a pacifist that endorsed violence. He questioned the concepts that have become associated with his name. Donovan Hahn of the New Republic says that Thoreau thought of Walden “as a poem...not nonfiction,” which is a genre and label that did not yet exist. Due to not being able to realize the split between Thoreau the man and his persona, Schulz misinterprets Thoreau’s investigation of life as that of a
...ing Henry David Thoreau into a prominent American Romantic writer. Such elements include his writings about life in Nature having great solitude; he became friends with the surrounding plants and animals. Secondly, he wrote about what was occurring day to day at Walden’s Pond which showed him as being individualistic. Moreover, there was the idea that God can only be found in nature, and pantheism was constant idea in his book. Finally, Thoreau wrote about intuition as a means of obtaining knowledge, and his use of senses as a tool for building intuition. These ideas time and time again show the various aspects of Thoreau being portrayed as an American Romantic which has lead to a great historical achievement as a writer that he well deserves.
Fender, Stephen. Introduction. Walden. By Henry David Thoreau. New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1997. Print.
Thoreau, Henry D. Walden, or Life in the Woods. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. New York: W.W. Norton, 2012. N. pag. Print.
Henry David Thoreau wanted to express his thoughts to the world. He did so by writing Walden a book that gives insights on the world from Thoreau’s point of view. “Walden” gives valuable advice in all types of fields. It shows aspects of Thoreau’s personality and how he views the world. To the best of my knowledge, Henry has many characteristics that he expressed in this book. Most of what he wrote was impressive. Honestly, I was extremely enthusiastic about reading this. Initially, I thought it would be a book like Great Expectations. But my expectations were wrong. I did not think I would actually learn things. Surprisingly, it sparked motivation in me. I wanted to be more in touch with nature. It seemed like Henry David Thoreau had everything figured out. He was calm and thoughtful and he seemed to look at life in a different way. Being in solitude in nature must really get you in touch with your inner self. It allows you to look at your flaws and look at your talents. I was greatly intrigued by every page of Walden.
The symbol of earth also shows significant symbolism in different parts of the text. When Jim is dying, and begins to hallucinate, the action he sees of men digging in the earth represents the fact that Jim feels like he is finally escaping the war - which in one way, he is - and going home. This helps the reader to understand how passionately Jim wants to be out of the war and back at home, how many of the soldiers would have felt during the war.