Walden

Walden Summary | Chapter 1 Summary

The opening chapter of Walden consists of Thoreau's criticism of the way that people lived in his day. With the second chapter, "Economy" creates the first of a series of structured paradoxes in the text. In "Economy," Thoreau analyzes the excess and complication of his contemporaries' lives.

The chapter opens with an anticipation of criticism of Thoreau's use of the first person. He endeavors to justify the accounts of his personal experiences by expressing that his neighbors and acquaintances showed an interest in his life at the time. People were asking him about every detail of his life, such as what he ate, how he felt, etc. He then proceeds to discuss the failure of his contemporaries to simplify their lives, addressing his readers intimately in his rhetoric to instill their sympathies for the "inhabitants." He also exercises his knowledge of classical literature to reiterate his argument with an analogy, comparing the lives that his friends and neighbors are trying to live daily with the twelve labors of Hercules.

The blending of classical references with those of every day experience continues in this chapter as Thoreau suggests that young men he sees inheriting everything, rather than working for and earning what they have, are at a disadvantage. These young men who have inherited farms and the like had a much easier time acquiring these things than they will have getting rid of them, and they are, in essence, now tied to working the land. Thoreau quotes a passage from "Metamorphoses" by Ovid, in its original Latin verse; followed by a translation by Sir Walter Raleigh: "From thence our kind hard-hearted is, enduring pain and care, approving that our bodies of a stony nature are."

The significance of this passage lingers in the context of the myth of Deucalion and Pyrrha, who, being the last men on earth after the great flood of Zeus, repopulated the race of men by throwing stones over their shoulders. Thoreau alludes to the myth to express his belief that men in modern times, like Deucalion and Pyrrha, have become careless and insensitive to the world around them. Thoreau goes on to say that the chief problem is that most men are too concerned with petty worries and tedious work to remember that they are ignorant, which is what they need to remember in order to grow.

Despair is the condition, Thoreau then concludes, in which most men continue to live; he calls this a quiet desperation or resignation. Thoreau develops his position by arguing that the things man sees as pastimes and such are actually symptoms of despair. The principle metaphor is of a fire. Thoreau suggests that men feed the fire with those doings that men feel - Thoreau believes falsely - are necessities of life. Thoreau makes an example of the supposed need for men to eat meat; Thoreau questions this with the analogy of a farmer who states the case by saying that a diet without meat gives us nothing to make bones with. Thoreau's contradiction, presented almost in a manner that mocks the farmer, calls up an image of the farmer walking behind an oxen with vegetable-made bones. It is easy to identify the loaded parts of this phrase.

The next key section begins with Thoreau's supposition that we can safely trust a lot more than we do, upon which he elaborates to say that nature is adapted to man's weaknesses as well as his strengths. A quotation from Confucius, the Chinese philosopher and teacher, concludes the paragraph and confirms that the argument that Thoreau has presented here is more than one man's speculation. Thoreau attempts to establish what is "necessary" of life in the following paragraphs. Then, he begins to recount something of his own life, although the details that he gives in this respect should not necessarily be considered autobiographical. Having established what the "necessary" parts to life are, Thoreau discusses the particulars. Clothing is one of his principle topics in the next section. He feels that clothing emulates a person's character; so much so that tasks that require new clothes should not be undertaken because it is a sign that the undertaking actually requires one to be a different person.

Shelter is the next topic and a condition that, Thoreau does not deny, is a necessity of life, although he tempers his admission with the recollection that "people have gone without shelter in colder countries than this for longer periods of time. Then, with references to the Biblical story of Adam and Eve, Thoreau draws a parallel between them both and children, in which the reader may see Adam and Eve as symbolizing the childhood of mankind; the parallel establishes that it is instinct which drives every child to find a first primitive shelter from the elements; even though they love to stay outside, no matter what the weather. To encourage the reader to draw upon personal experience, Thoreau reminds us of the excitement many of us felt as children as we explored caves and rocks. Thus, he demonstrates that to seek shelter is natural, and because it is so, shelter must be a necessity of life; though, as Thoreau considers next, only a slight shelter is necessary, rather than an elaborate, expensive house.

To impart the perceived superfluity that is an investment in a large shelter, Thoreau turns to a colloquial expression and considers the roots of the words. He queries why a man with income enough to pay "country rates" of rent, which presumably were lower than the rates in towns, is called a "poor civilized man"; a "savage," who owns none of the luxury items listed by Thoreau is nonetheless considered rich in his savagery. Thoreau's conclusion here is that men must realize civilization is a sign of the progress of man by producing better dwellings at less cost. Society, he argues, must create a preference for modest houses. Thoreau begins to recount his expedition to Walden Pond, which, he writes, occurred in March 1845. As Thoreau develops something of an annual cycle in Walden, it is important for the reader to take note that Thoreau records the beginning of his experiment as springtime. He continues to relate the details of his expedition, in terms of the tools that he used to create his cabin on Walden Pond. As well befits the chapter, Thoreau also recreates calculations of the cost of building and other materials, his food and his total profit from his farm. He lists his furniture to emphasize the apparent simplicity of his lifestyle at Walden.

At the conclusion of the first chapter, Thoreau finally expresses his hypothesis for his Walden experiment. It is his belief that to be self-sufficient is not a hardship, but a good way to live, if we live in a simple, wise manner, a conclusion he has reached through faith and experience. This also summarizes Thoreau's approach to his hypothesis; the blending of faith, or the quotations and paraphrases of other philosophers and writers in whose intellectual superiority and value the reader, and presumably Thoreau, has faith; and Thoreau's own experience, based on his observations of life around him. Thoreau thus leaves the reader in no doubt about the direction of his narrative as an introduction to his work.