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Walden and Environmental Aesthetics: Thoreau's Eco-Spiritual Sojourn to the Wilderness

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Walden and Environmental Aesthetics: Thoreau's Eco-Spiritual Sojourn to the Wilderness JOURNAL OF CRITICAL REVIEWS ISSN- 2394-5125 VOL 7, ISSUE 19, 2020 WALDEN AND ENVIRONMENTAL AESTHETICS: THOREAU’S ECO-SPIRITUAL SOJOURN TO THE WILDERNESS Dr Sthitaprajna1, Dr Sailesh Mishra2, Ms. Monalisa Mishra3 1,2,3 Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, ITER, Siksha ‗O‘ Anusandhan (Deemed to be University), Bhubaneswar, India Email: [email protected] Received: May 2020 Revised and Accepted: August 2020 ABSTRACT: This paper attempts to analyze the life and works of Henry David Thoreau in vivid detail and explores how his Walden offers us a framework to establish eco-criticism as a genre of critical theory. Thoreau continues to be environmentally resonant because his detailed study and careful description of nature, his sympathy for non-human creatures, and his perception of the interrelatedness of all living things invigorated a tradition of ecological awareness in the history of American intellectualism. Thoreau chose Walden as a metaphoric experimentation for promoting a harmonious living with nature and his book as well as his life is a message to reconnect with nature. For Thoreau the most practical view of life is the most spiritual. But his yogic renunciation and excessive love for nature has its roots in Indian eco-spiritual philosophies. The paper also argues that Indian eco-spiritualism had a deep impact on Thoreau‘s experiments with wilderness. KEYWORDS: Thoreau, Walden, Indian philosophy, eco-spirituality, eco-criticism, yogi I. INTRODUCTION Nature and the environment have always been the interest of academic discourse. This paper attempts to examine the life and beliefs of the hermit of Walden pond and explore how Thoreau chose Walden to offer us a framework to establish eco criticism as a genre of critical theory. Moreover, it also reflects how Thoreau‘s concept of experimenting with wilderness had its roots in Indian eco spiritual philosophies. Walden was Thoreau‘s spiritual and mystical muse. Walden Pond is very significant not only for the cultural movement in American history but also for the history and evolution of the environmental movement. We will look into Walden as Thoreau‘s metaphor to understand the links between the human and the nonhuman world where nature has an overwhelming presence. Walden is also a fundamental work on ecology and anticipates most of the theoretical implications of the contemporary theory of eco criticism. The tradition of nature writing in America, as many argue, stems from Thoreau's masterwork. Together with Emerson‘s essay Nature, their works have been seminal in discussing nature. Though many works have been done on Thoreau as a nature writer and Thoreau as a transcendentalist but scholars have largely passed over Hindu eco spiritual influence on Thoreau. William E. Channing‘s Thoreau: the Poet-Naturalist (1966) depicts Thoreau as a nature writer. Umesh Patri‘s Hindu Scriptures and American Transcendentalists (1987) focuses on the impact of Hindu Scriptures on American Transcendentalists like Emerson and Thoreau from a philosophical point of view. But Robert Kuhn McGregor‘A Wider View of the Universe (1997) and Buell‘s The Environmental Imagination: Thoreau, Nature Writing and the Formation of American Culture (1995)) are of special interest to me because they discuss Thoreau from an ecocritical and Indian perspective. Thoreau as a nature writer is thoroughly discussed by many writers like John Elder‘s American Nature Writers (1996) and Bridget Keegan‘s Literature and Nature: Four Centuries of Nature Writing (2001). However, the impact of Hindu and Buddhist ecospirituality on Thoreau has largely been undermined. A groundbreaking work, Walden captures the true beauty and meaning of the human-nature relation, and remains unequalled in its attempt to define ecocriticism. Thoreau‘s book is the embodiment of ecocritical discourse where his message is to reconnect with nature. Thoreau continues to be environmentally resonant because his detailed study and careful description of nature, his sympathy for non-human creatures, and his perception of the interrelatedness of all living things helped start a tradition of ecological awareness in the history of American intellectualism. His ―grand philosophic aloofness, his hatred of materialism, his lack of ambition, his yogic renunciation and austerity, his love of solitude, and his excessive love of nature also made him one of the most controversial writers of his time.‖(Patri 98) Thoreau‘s inherent interest in the transcendental unity of nature prompts his readers to enjoy a meaningful and benign relationship with environment. The eco critics were especially interested in the Romantic definition of nature because of their steadfast and deep love for nature and were revolutionary in their demand for 5001 JOURNAL OF CRITICAL REVIEWS ISSN- 2394-5125 VOL 7, ISSUE 19, 2020 preservation of nature. Their radicalism sprang from their worldview of reclaiming nature and preserving nature in its pristine form. For Thoreau, nature definitely was the binary opposite to the new capitalist machinery as Anderson puts it: ―... his first gambit is to slay the dragon Materialism that was plaguing the Americans of his time‖ (Anderson 19). He could clearly visualize the consequences of dissociating oneself from nature and turning towards machines. He always wanted his fellowmen to live a life of harmony with nature and he was the greatest critic of the railways. In one of his poems he writes: What‘s the railroad to me? I never go to see Where it ends. It fills a few hollows. And makes banks for the swallows, It sets the sand a-blowing, And the blackberries a-growing. (Walden 107) He further critiques his country‘s growing passion for materialism saying, ―Men think that it is essential that the Nation have commerce... We do not ride on the railroad; it rides upon us‖ (82). He questions whether America is genuinely making progress by seeking luxuries. ―Most of the luxuries,‖ as Thoreau recounts, ―and many of the so-called comforts of life, are not only not indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind‖(17). He thus goes on to say, ―Simplify, simplify.‖ In the name of development and improvements, the nation is ―tripped up by its own traps, ruined by luxury and heedless expense‖ (82). So rather than a rigid economy what he prescribes is ―simplicity of life and elevation of purpose‖ (82). Thoreau believes in a minimalistic and simple life. He lists food, clothing, and shelter, emphasising simplicity in everything. He himself practised vegetarianism as an ethical choice and simplicity. By simplifying life through saving time or ―amount of life‖ which comprise the true cost of things, he diverts the theories of Adam Smith from a purely materialistic end towards spiritual goals. Smith argued for the ―freedom of the individual‖ Thoreau extends this and advises to ―use that freedom for spiritual advancement.‖ (Schneider, 99-100) Emerson and Thoreau illustrate an easy, care-free relationship with nature. Like Thoreau, Emerson‘s essay reflects is his philosophy of Transcendentalism. Emerson can be rightly considered the pioneer of nature study because of his tremendous work on the aesthetic valuation of nature, bringing back a renewed interest in nature and ecology. His interest nevertheless, was not on the scientific study of nature. Like Thoreau, Emerson recommends a life of leisure, amidst nature appreciating and enjoying it, thereby redirecting a new found interest in nature writing. Thoreau attacks the work culture of his times, steeped in materialism. The eco critics have huge takeaways from his unique position in the field of nature writing. One of the aspects of his position is that he was ―the first major Anglo-American creative writer to begin to think systematically of native culture as providing models of environmental perception‖ (Buell, Environmental 211). He was never comfortable with the idea of exploiting nature for materialistic benefits. He was, thus, always at odds with his neighbours mainly because they were oblivious to the incessant deforestation going during his times. Thoreau ―proposed that the banks of Concord River would be public land and also the preservation of a forest in every township of 500 – 1000 acres.‖ (Buell, Environmental 212-213) These views put Thoreau surprisingly ahead of his times, in tune with modern ecological thinking and environmentalism. Walden celebrates nature and relates in great detail his surroundings and the meaning he finds in them. For example, when he describes the eyes of a young partridge he says, ―The remarkably adult yet innocent expression of their open and serene eyes is very memorable. All intelligence seems reflected in them. They suggest not merely the purity of infancy, but a wisdom clarified by experience‖ (191). The famous ant war is a narrative masterpiece and a factual observation of nature in its own right. The description of the animals like the fox hunt, owls, jays and rabbits are evidences of the writer‘s compelling narrative and plain and powerful admiration for nature. He, thus, writes, ―It is remarkable how many creatures live wild and free though secret in the woods, and still sustain themselves in the neighbourhood of towns.‖ (192) His act of declaring his individuality and personal sovereignty at Walden pond romanticizes the isolation and majesty of nature, and emphasizes its importance to balance out society. In Walden, Thoreau very meticulously describes his life in the wilderness, talking about the remarkable creatures and the green forest
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