Reading Note
Walden begins in spring, going through summer, autumn and winter, and finally ends in spring. Thoreau describes in detail his two-year and two-month life in a crude cabin besides the Lake Walden and his thinking during that period in the book. He is supported only by his own labour, living a simple and recluse life.
I like these sentences in the book and most of them are philosophical:
1、Public opinion is a weak tyrant compared with our own private opinion. What a man thinks of himself, that it is which determines, or rather indicates, his fate.
2、Yet they honestly think there is no choice left. But alert and healthy natures remember that the sun rose clear. It is never too later to give up our prejudices. No way of thinking or doing, however ancient, can be trusted without proof.
3、But there are as many ways as there can be drawn radii from one centre.
4、Confucius said, “To know that we know what we know, and that we do not know what we do not know, that is true knowledge.”
5、The life which men praise and regard as successful is but one kind. Why should we exaggerate any one kind at the expense of the others?
6、And if the civilized man’s pursuits the greater part of his life in obtaining gross necessaries and comforts merely, why should he have a better dwelling than the former?
7、Men say they know many things; But look, they have taken wings—the arts and sciences, and a thousand appliances; the wind that blows is all that any body knows.
8、The only co-operation which is commonly possible is exceedingly partial and superficial; and what little true co-operation there is, is as if it were not, being a harmony inaudible to men. To co-operate in the highest as well as the lowest sense, means to get our living together.
9、There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root
10、What is a house but a sedes, a seat?--better if a country seat.
11、For a man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone.
12、While the mists, like ghosts, were stealthily withdrawing in every direction into the woods, as at the breaking up of some nocturnal conventicler.
13、Renew thyself completely each day; do it again, and again, and forever again.
14、We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aids, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn, which does not forsake us in our soundest sleep.
15、Men say that a stitch in time saves nine tomorrow.
16、Let us spend one day as deliberately as Nature, and not be thrown off the track by every nutshell and mosquito’s wing that falls on the rails…With unrelaxed nerves, with morning vigor, sail by it, looking another way, tied to the mast like Ulysses…Be it life or death, we crave only reality.
17、The intellect is a cleaver; it discerns and rifts its way into the secret of things.
18、Being seated, to run through the region of the spiritual world; I have had this advantage in books. To be intoxicated by a single glass of wine; I have experienced this pleasure when I have drunk the liquor of the esoteric doctrines.
19、This is a delicious evening, when the whole body is one sense, and imbibes delight through every pore. I go and come with a strange liberty in Nature, a part of herself ….yet, like the lake, my serenity is rippled but not ruffled.
20、However mean your life is , meet it and live it; do not shun it and call it hard names. It is not so bad as you are…. Cultivate poverty like a garden herb, like sage. Do not trouble yourself much to get new things, whether clothes or friends. Turn the old; return to them. Things do not change; we change….Do not seek so anxiously to be developed, to subject yourself to many influences to be played on; it is all dissipation.
21、Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.
Thoreau consistently emphasizes the minimalism of his lifestyle and the contentment to be derived from it. He repeatedly contrasts his own freedom with the imprisonment of others who devote their lives to material prosperity.
Writing characteristics: firstly, using multiple techniques to describe scene and substance. We appreciate its describing of the splendid, wonderful scenery. Firstly, it is because of Walden beautiful scenery, which is rare in the world. Secondly, the diversity of the technique is another reason, including long-range, close, panoramic, micro, moving and silent scene. Many appropriate and vivid metaphors also add grace for the scenery description. The deeper reason is that the author lives near the lake for a long period without the interference of earthly noise and worldly thoughts. He can see the deepest bottom of lake and the most true color, so he can write the most pure text.
Secondly, expressing the profound thought combining with the specific description. Thoreau is a thoughtful writer, having his own ideal. He regards his life by the lake as an experiment or practice of his outlook on life. Therefore, his work has a profound thought foundation. Although what we see in the book is the specific description and narrative, these are representation of his deep thoughts.
Despite his isolation, Thoreau feels the presence of society surrounding him. The Fitchburg Railroad rushes past Walden Pond, interrupting hid\s reveries and forcing him to contemplate the power of technology. He also finds occasion to converse with a wide range of other people, such as the occasional peasant farmer, railroad worker, or the odd visitor to Walden. Thoreau devotes great attention to nature, the passing of the seasons, and the creatures with which he shares the woods. He recounts the habits of a panoply of animals, from woodchucks to partridges. Some he endows with a larger meaning, often spiritual or psychological. For instance, the hooting loon that plays hide and seek with Thoreau becomes a symbol of the playfulness of nature and its divine laughter at human endeavors. His interest in animals is not exactly like the naturalist's or zoologist's. He does not observe and describe them neutrally and scientifically, but gives them a moral and philosophical significance, as if each has a distinctive lesson to teach him.
As he becomes acquainted with Walden Pond and neighboring ponds, Thoreau finds that Walden Pond is no more than a hundred feet deep, thereby refuting common folk wisdom that it is bottomless. He meditates on the pond as a symbol of infinity that need in their lives. Eventually winter gives way to spring, and with a huge crash and roar the ice of Walden Pond begins to melt and hit the shore. In lyric imagery echoing the onset of Judgment Day, he describes the coming of spring as vast transformation of the face of the wood, a time when all sins are forgiven.
Thoreau's narrative observations give way, in the last chapter of Walden, to a more direct sermonizing about the untapped potential within humanity. In visionary language, Thoreau exhorts us to "meet" our lives and live fully.
08英语2班 G08710207 陆芳芳