TOW #7: Pond Scum: Henry David Thoreau's Moral Myopia

Walden Pond is one of the best known works of American Literature. The book, written by celebrated author Henry David Thoreau, focuses on the benefits of embracing wilderness, solitude and simplicity. It is seen as a keystone in the mythos of America's "Great Outdoors" and is a common read for many high school students. However, as Kathryn Shulz--writer for the New Yorker and Pew Research Journalism laureate--points out, Thoreau's Walden Pond might not have been as idyllic as the American nature lover might think. In "Pond Scum" Kathryn Schulz explores Thoreau's most famous work, as well as opinions of his contemporaries, to reveal the darker side of Thoreau. Using his own quotes as well as those of his friends, Schulz argues that Thoreau was not a champion of nature and living the simple life but rather an egotistical, narcissistic, self absorbed nihilist. Schulz's criticism is intended to be read for the modern American who is familiar with the works of Thoreau, but not necessarily educated in Thoreau's personal life or the deeper implications of his works. Due to this, Schulz juxtaposes Thoreau's reality to that which he fabricates in Walden Pond to discredit the idea that he is a paragon of simplicity and environmental virtue. For example, in order to paint Thoreau as a pompous and condescending hypocrite, she fleshes out all of his exacting standards of living without luxuries only to point out how some of his descriptions in Walden Pond might have been slightly blurred. She says "In reality, Walden Pond in 1845 was scarcely more off the grid, relative to contemporaneous society, than Prospect Park is today. The commuter train to Boston ran along its southwest side; in summer the place swarmed with picnickers and swimmers, while in winter it was frequented by ice cutters and skaters. He also fails to mention weekly visits from his mother and sisters (who brought along more undocumented food) and downplays the fact that he routinely hosted other guests as well—sometimes as many as thirty at a time. This is the situation Thoreau summed up by saying, 'For the most part it is as solitary where I live as on the prairies. It is as much Asia or Africa as New England. . . . At night there was never a traveller passed my house, or knocked at my door, more than if I were the first or last man.'" By juxtaposing Thoreau's reality with his impossible fabricated realities, Schulz shows not only how the values that Thoreau preached so pompously to his "lessers" were unrealistic and impossible to obtain, but also that Thoreau could not keep to the morals which he himself fabricated. Through this juxtaposition, Schulz shows that Thoreau was not a god but rather a charlatan and a hypocrite.