Thoreau's Elements of American Romanticism

Elements of American Romanticism

Henry David Thoreau pens his book Walden during a revolutionary period of time known as American Romanticism. The literary movement of American Romanticism began roughly between the years of 1830 and 1860. It is believed to be a chapter of time in which those who had been dissatisfied by the Age of Reason were revolting through works of literature. All elements of Romanticism are in sharp, abrupt contrast to those types of ideas such as empirical observation and rationality. An online article describes American Romanticism in the following manner, "They celebrated imagination/intuition versus reason/calculation, spontaneity versus control, subjectivity and metaphysical musing versus objective fact, revolutionary energy versus tradition, individualism versus social conformity, democracy versus monarchy, and so on" (Strickland). In 1845 during that period of time, Thoreau decides to spend two years of his life in an experiment with Mother Nature in a cabin at Walden Pond. He tells exquisite tales of life in natural surroundings in his book, Walden, through a most primitive organic style. Walden is a key work of American Romanticism because of its embedded ideas of solitude, individualism, pantheism and intuition.

Romanticism seeks nature as a means for obtaining knowledge, and while Thoreau heavily spends his time in the woods and around the pond by himself, he inevitably feels a sense of solitude. Solitude is not necessarily loneliness or intentional isolation of oneself. It is merely an acknowledgment of the fact that he or she is alone. Thoreau has his own thoughts about solitude in which he writes:

In the midst of a gentle rain while these thoughts prevailed, I was suddenly sensible of such sweet and beneficent society in Nature, in the very pattering of the drops, and in every sound and sight around my house, an infinite and unaccountable friendliness all at once like an atmosphere sustaining me, as made the fancied advantages of human neighborhood insignificant, and I have never thought of them since. Every little pine needle expanded and swelled with sympathy and befriended me. (88-89)

He acknowledges his distance from humanity in the preceding passage, yet he does not feel lonely because Nature upholds him. Additionally, he clearly states that the living organisms around him are what he dwells upon for his emotional support. Thus, this is proving that solitude was a common theme of Romantic writing where he has demonstrated from the previous excerpt.

Romantics commonly incorporate ideas of individualism in their writings because they value what's best for a person in his or her day to day life over what's best for a large group of people such as a country or a nation. An online article refutes the following about individualism, "Individualism holds that the individual is the primary unit of reality and the ultimate standard of value...it sees society as a collection of individuals, not something over and above them" (Stata). As the article seems to point out, Individualism is a perspective of reality that relies on an individual's actions during the course of the day to find significance and meaning in life. In Walden, the author writes in a way that captures this thought without directly placing it in the text. He tells his stories in the book without an agenda except for what is happening in the moment. As he drifts through the stories through the pages, each one lacks any sign of a logical order. This organic style of writing is clearly of that same individualistic nature.

Romanticism pursues nature as a fundamental source for theology; it believes that God can only be found in the natural surroundings. They perceive god to be feelings that are returned to them when they are around nature. They reserve a great awe or reverence and mystery for the planet and the universe. These theological ideas were derived from a belief that was "coined in 1705 by John Toland, for someone who believes that there is only one eternal being - the Universe" (Harrison). Further in this article, it describes the basic conceptions of pantheism, "We need no faith, no ancient books, to reveal these feelings and experiences to us. The visions are right in front of our eyes, the feelings are in our hearts" (Harrison). Thoreau seems to portray the same respect for the planet and discovers a deity in nature:

There is nowhere recorded a simple and irrepressible satisfaction with the gift of life, any memorable praise of God. All health and success does me good, however far off and withdrawn it may appear; all disease and failure helps to make me sad and does me evil, however much sympathy it may have with me or I with it. If, then, we would indeed restore mankind by truly Indian, botanic, magnetic, or natural means,