Thoreau's Walden: A Look at Hidden Tactics for Persuasion

In the work of Thoreau, as in Emerson before him, the main focus of a work is not limited to the telling of a tale, or to journalism. Thoreau is setting down in writing, largely in the form at of person journal entries, thoughts and observations which he feels are valid in the course of his daily life. Many of these journal entries are refined, combined, and extrapolated upon to find their way into essays, lectures, and books. In the first chapters of Walden, Thoreau presents an account of his time during an experiment in his life. Through this new medium, Thoreau captures the attention of the reader while slipping in new ideas and concepts wherever possible.

The first two chapters of Walden focus largely on why Thoreau chose to build and live in his cabin, how this was accomplished, and less obviously, the solidity of the ideologies that led Thoreau to decide on this experiment. It is apparent from the beginning that the work is autobiographical, and that it is not merely a recording of thoughts, but of actions. As the first chapter, "Economy", continues, the reader is given specific and minute details about how Thoreau built his cabin and from what, what he ate and where it came from, and where he felt that he had deviated from his plan, or made a mistake. This lends an air of credibility and respect to the work.

However, many things are supposed throughout the chapter. It is supposed that owning a home, however crude, is better than renting one, and that work is only to be done if it secures basic needs while being productive and enjoyable. It is important, says Thoreau, to determine what your basic necessities are, and how to obtain those necessities with the least possible disruption to life. Many necessities can be obtained by growing or creating them yourself. By producing only what you can use, you are not trapped into the cycle of bartering with your unused goods for things you do not need.

All of these suppositions are slipped in among the recounting of building the cabin and planting crops, and if a reader is to dispute the ideas, then he must also distrust Thoreau's actions. Because the writing is so precise and the details extensively listed, the reader is forced to accept, at least for the moment, what Thoreau is claiming. However, before there is time to sit back and consider, another portion of the work containing "action" comes along, and then more ideology, requiring that the reader understand and at least half-heartedly believe the information which has been presented beforehand.

In this way, with new material being introduced and then reinforced in cycles among autobiographical accounts of the time, the reader reaches the end of even the first two chapters with a sense of understanding what Thoreau has done and why he has done it. Even more so, the ideas seem reasonable and familiar, and one feels a slight sense of shame at not seeing these things which are so obvious, and not implementing them in one's own life. Much like an elementary school reader which presents new words and grammatical rules and then implements them in an interesting story, Thoreau disguises his ideas to cause the reader to accept them more easily.

In becoming the central character in the work, Thoreau must maintain a sense in the reader of his reliability, and this is done through showing mistakes that were made, and improvements on previous flawed systems. This makes the whole of Thoreau's suggestions for a better way of living seem possible for the common man, as the plan is adaptable and capable of surviving mistakes. The work, then, could be considered a cleverly disguised piece of propaganda, were it not for the captivating quality of the narrative that unfolds throughout the work. Thoreau's Walden is a new genre altogether, one which is more effective than the works of many that came before him, perhaps for the simple fact that Thoreau is accessible and interesting to the reader.