Mythology of Thoreau

Henry D. Thoreau, born in 1817, grew up close to his older brother, John, who taught school to help pay Henry’s school tuition at Harvard. While at Harvard, Henry reads a book by Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nature, never in a sense, finished exploring its idea but exploring everything. In 1842, John died in Henry’s arm from lockjaw when he cut himself while shaving. At the age of 28, wanting to write his first book, he went to Walden Pond and built his cabin on land owned by Emerson. While there, he spent an incredible time reading and writing, yet he spent much of his time “sauntering” in nature (Woodlief Ann). After spending two years, he returned to Concord, completing his experiment with nature. Thoreau (44) died of tuberculosis in 1862, with his last word of “Moose” and “Indian” (Woodlief Ann).
In the “Sound” chapter, Thoreau talks about the pond and about the railroad, or the iron horse. He feels like mankind is using Nature for their own good, “when I hear the iron horse make the hills echo with his snort like thunder… and man made the elements their servants fro noble ends!” (Thoreau, pg 76). Gustafsson Henrik focuses on Thoreau talking about the new Mythology; he sees it as “homonym, with tangible as well as abstract connotation” (pg180). Thoreau sees the iron horse as a dangerously flawed philosophy. People where moving with mechanical time, not by nature, and because they are on the train, they do not see nature, there for not experiencing the fullness of finding yourself.

Work cited:
Gustafsson, Henrik "Thoreau's WALDEN." Explicator 59.4 (2001): 180. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 23 Nov. 2009.
Thoreau, Henry. Walden; or, Life in the Woods. New York: Dover Publications, inc, 1995.
Woodlief, Ann “Henry David Thoreau.” American Transcendentalism Web. Web. 20 Nov. 2009.