SUMMARY The development of Thoreau* s identity-from David Henry, son of John and Cynthia, to Henry David, sojourner at Walden- was a long, complex, and painful process. The period between Thoreau* s graduation from Harvard in 1837 and the beginning of the Walden experiment in 1845 was a time during which he was struggling to define his identity. Pacing dilemmas of identity, vocation and relation to parents, siblings and community; searching for models and finding a `great man` to emulate and an ideology to embrace; seeking satisfactory forms of intimacy; engaging in a rivalry with the brother he deeply loved; seeking to establish his own and become his own man; sensing his potential for greatness and fearing he would never realize that potential; traumatically confronted with, and profoundly influenced by, the death of his brother all made a great deal of burden on Thoreau. In order to get to the roots of Thoreau' s identity and identity confusion, it is necessary to pay considerable atten tion to his family back ground and childhood experiences. Thoreau* s writings-parti cularly the Journal. Correspondence, and early poems and essays-help us to understand the person. They show us that Thoreau was a human being-extraordinary and praiseworthy, but also beset by conflict, confusion, and insecurity. ` To Emerson America was still in its adolescence, confron ted with both the `fear and hope` of identity confision. Emerson knew that the quest for identity on both individual and cultu ral levels-could be agonizing, particularly in an increasingly conformist, materialistic society. The age in which Thoreau grew up and whose atmosphere he imbided was bewailed as the `Age of Introversion`. Born into-43- this transitional time and partaking of its spirit, Thoreau would be one who felt espeoially strongly that he would prefer a prolonged adolescence, an infinitely extended moratorium-not only for himself but for his society-to an adulthood which would limit choice and destroy visions of greatness and heroism» Although conflict between generations occurs in all but the most traditional and authoritarian of societies, it was unusually intense in this age of Revolution. Emerson describes Thoreau* s generation as being not in the state of mind of their fathers. The traditional order had broken down into the party of the Past and the party of the future. The change in the village center symbolized the mo vement away from the traditional crafts and light industry to business and services. With the new institutions came merchants, bankers, lawyers, and insurance men0 The split between village and town became increasingly obvious. Rapid changes in the social life brought town and urban centers closer together. People were beginning to define themselves by what they bought. Even in the early days of commerciali zation, there was a measure of conspicuous consumption. It became possible to be more fashionable, up-to date, by consu ming what the city had produced. The machine was invading the periphery. Commercial spirit was becoming a more dominant for ce in Concord than either the religious principle or the urge for independence. It was in Concord village, where Thoreau Spent much of his childhood and adolescence, that the conmercial spirit was apparently becoming the ruling spirit. Thoreau who early in his life had come to value purity and staunch independence could see that the town was becoming less autonomous, more dependent on the outBide world. The growth of interrelation ships and interdependences among towns and cities led to-44- increased standardization and uniformity in many areas of life. Gonoord was coming to rely more and more on material goods, fashions, values, institutions, and technological innovations not native to the town or true to the spirit of its ancestors. The coming of the railroad in 1844 was perhaps the most obvious example of that loss of autonomy which accompanied the intrusion of the outside world. Closely related to Thoreau's feeling that Goncordians were becoming overly dependent on the outside world was his sense that, in the vacuum created by the decline of traditional standards, men and women were coming to rely too heavily on the opinions and standards of their neighbours rather than seeking to be autonomous. People were afraid to confront directly the problems afidentity definition. Moreover they were afraid of social disapproval of being unlike their neighbours,. Only through truly individual definition of identity and behaviour could men achieve autonomy. Therefore, while Thoreau's struggle against dependence was in large part a response to his personal situation^ In a for more general sense, Thoreau objected to the predominant commercial spirit in Concord because it valued materialism over purity, piety and spirituality. Although Concord offered a wider range of identity and career choices than it had before, the range was still too narrow for a young man like Thoreau who was seeking a life of the spirit, who had read Nature and `The American Scholar` and valued moral heroism. Perhaps the most urgent identity-choice for a young man or woman in Thoreau's generation was whether or not to leave Concorde Concord did not offer him fulfilling alternatives. He was in need of a prolonged adolescence. Because he could not leave, he had to create a moratorium for himself in a community which demanded conventional behaviour, hard work, and adulthood from his young men.-45- On July 4, Independence Day, Thoreau finally moved into a home of hisown. At. Walden Pond, he came as close as he ever would in real life to reaohing the sun, to achieving a satis fying identity. There he was better able to believe in his heroism and independence while still living close to and remaining dependenton, home, mother, and local associations. He could consider himself a traveller in Concord ` Peeling hostility toward and from the town, he could aggressively set himself apart at Walden as superior as distant from the triviality and materialism of Concordians. Living there, he could devote each day to purifying himself, to washing away his guilt, to contrition and ascetism, to reassuring himself of pietyc Returning to Walden was in some respects like returning to the pre-oedipal,prerivalry past, to the maternal breast, to the womb. While strategically withdrawing himself from society and embracing solitude, Thoreau found himself capable of estab lishing a compensatory intimacy with nature, himself and his art; he grew firmer in his conviction that he was inwardly fertile. The book emerged out of his desperate need to keep away the shadows of identity confusion, shame, and guilt-shadows which continued to hover threateningly over him in the post- Walden years0 In writing Walden Thoreau created a myth of personality and experience which helped to sustain him and which has given inspiration and hope to others. Walden and Walden made it possible for him to see the moratorium as fulfilling in itself, as perhaps the most const ructive mode of living. In the experience at Walden and in the book, Thoreau provided Americans with the archetype of a psyc hosocial moratorium. He speaks eloquently of each person's need, at some stage of his or her life to refrain from commit ments and escape entanglements, to retreat from business and-46- the demands and expectations of other people, to get in touch with the self, to experiment with fresh ideas and identities.. As Thoreau indicates, each person must find his or her own time and space for internal growth, his or her own Walden. Implicit in Walden is the belief that one must create one's own moratorium since family, society, and community have not permitted or institutionalized a satisfactory moulting period for individuals who need it. The book is in one sense an urgent plea for community encouragement and establishment of moratorium as well as for more meaningful identity alter natives» In another sense, it is pervaded by the recognition that society and community will not provide constructive mora- toria and identity-choices, that individuals must depend only upon themselves if they are to achieve personal authenticity,, In deed, Walden may also be Said to be an eloquent and poignant lament for America's lost opportunity for a moratorium,. As for Civil Disobedience, his thoughts are about an individual's reactions against the govermental forms. Thoreau' s chief purpose in Civil Disobedience was to wesn men away from their adherence to an insidious relativism and to persuade them to return again to the superior standard of absolute truth. Having thus established his principle, he goes on to present the most effective method of defending it, that is, by practicing civil disobedience, refusing to pay taxes, going to jail if ne cessary. Thoreau still believed that reform could be achieved only within the individual, not through social action. In Civil Diso bedience he had stressed that one good man could reform a nati on. Prom the beginning of his life to the very end, Thoreau believed that all reform must come from within and can not be imposed by any outside force`We can not reform society;we can reform only the individual. When each individual reforms himself, then the reformation of society will automatically-47- f ollow. Reformation through legislation may achieve temporary results, but lasting reformation will be achieved only when each individual convinces himself of its desirability. Such is the basic belief of Transcendentalism. Far more than the individual reformers, he mistrusted the reform societies. No matter what their purpose, societies tended to institutionalize themselves. They destroyed rather than developed the strength of the individual. The government he idealized was not a government by force but a government by co-operation. He fully realized that certain functions could best be conducted by society rather than by the individual. Thoreau constantly kept in mind the danger of centralized government. No matter for what good purpose a government was established, it too soon became institutionalized,. Civil Disobedience would be a mode of expressing aggres sion, defying authority, and defeating an adversary by passive resistance, by going to jail»
