Walden's Utopia

What about the idea of place invokes such emotion and question? Place can be divided into two main categories: tangible and abstract. One of the great American authors, Henry David Thoreau, conducted an experiment at Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts that defines place on both levels. Through his life, and his work, all people are able to develop a deeper connection to the notion of place.

To begin, Thoreau noted that, "my purpose in going to Walden Pond was not to live dearly there, but to transact some private business with the fewest obstacles" (Thoreau 126). A sense of place begins with the mind. Thoreau teaches that he did not leave the comforts of Concord for pretentious reasons, but rather to develop a deeper understanding of his place in the world. His private business was to live the transcendental dream and learn from nature, to develop his ideas, to grow as an individual, and grow into his place as a part of the whole of humanity.

Is the constant growth of society really beneficial for the whole? Unless society is able to grow in both knowledge and existence, as well as in number, society loses touch with its past and with its future. "While civilization has been improving our houses, it has not equally improved the men who inhabit them" (Thoreau 137). Social growth is important, but recognition and growth of those who inhabit the cities and other growing areas is essential to the success of the city and to the idea of a sense of place. Place can then, with Thoreau's help, be extended into three categories, which now include knowledge.

To say that Thoreau is a socialist is a bit of a stretch, but the valid point is made when he stated, "we belong to the community" (Thoreau 147). The community is what most people consider when discussing their place. The American stereotype for place is a suburban area with white picket fences around each house. This, however, is not the real America. The individual is the community. People of similar mindsets group together to form communities, and in the end the entire community reflect the individual. Transcendentalists reflect this idea, God is found in nature, and the giving of self to nature allows for the individual to experience God. For a transcendentalist, the community is one's commune with nature.

Walden is the great America experience. It is exactly this separation from society and social acceptance that enables one to explore their very own sense of place. Since sense of place beings with the individual, it then moves to how the individual interacts with their surroundings. Whether in a city or in a rural countryside, everyone develops a place they call home. This idea of home is crucial to place. People develop a comfort level with their surroundings, and it is this comfort that people initially identify with when considering place.

"I go and come with a strange liberty in Nature, a part of herself" (Thoreau 211). Nature has a way of opening up the individual. Throughout time, various groups have escaped to nature as a way to better understand various things, primarily religion. Consider the many orders of monks that exist within Christianity and Buddhism. Thoreau recognized that nature has an ability to liberate an individual while somehow allowing oneself to assimilate.

"Any prospect of awakening or coming to life to a dead man makes indifferent all times and places" (Thoreau 215). The quote seems rather ambiguous, but the meaning lies in the last words, time and place. Many places are remembered for the men who lived there. Charlottesville, Virginia is known for the University of Virginia and Thomas Jefferson, but the feelings invoked by place and time are felt by those of all ages. When returning to a location, people are taken back to the personal memories of the place. These memories serve as markers for the many senses of place one may experience in their life., and help add to the very being of the individual.

"I love to be alone. I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude" (Thoreau 216). Thoreau was not fully alone during his stay at Walden, having the occasional visitor, but it is solitude developed a greater understanding of life and surrounding world. Thoreau came to understand that society is not evil, nor are cities, but rather discovered a necessity for everyone to come into contact with themselves though their environment. The main message being that too many people go through their lives and never experience life. People are so interconnected with everyone, but really do not know many people. With mobile communications it would seem as if people are closer, but reality is everyone is further apart. This is Thoreau's calling card to take a step back from the rapid nature of life and grow closer to the things that matter, to simplify human existence.

"Thus even in civilized communities, embryo man passes through the hunter stage of development" (Thoreau 275). Hunting is a sign of coming of age. Part of every culture is the notion of coming of age and social acceptance. Americans see coming of age as graduation, the first car, or even a certain age, but these things tie one closer to their community and what their country finds acceptable. In a way, all places come with their own trials that enable the newcomer to the community to pass through their hunter stages to become a member and find their own sense of place.

For a sense of place, it is always the things that are unexplored that fuel human interest and provides change. "Our village life would stagnate if it were not for the unexplored forests and meadows which surround it" (Thoreau 354). The "wild west" is still popular today for this very reason. Thoreau touches on the fact that cities are in constant motion and growth, but the growth would stop if people had no place to go to escape that growth. It is a constant pressing outward in society from the city, manifest destiny, but the system has not changed from Thoreau to present times. People still want the benefits of the city with the novelty of a plot of land.

Whenever someone questions what it means to live in a place, raise the question of what a place needs to live. Place should be considered an integral part of the individual. To remove place is to remove existence, memories, like writing a story without a setting, the world would become a blank canvas. The emotions would fail away, as the abstract parts of place disappear along with those tangible elements; much like the waters of Walden pond drying up and leaving Thoreau no place to call his own.

Works Cited

Thoreau, Henry David. "Walden." Walden and Other Writings. Ed. Joseph Wood Krutch. New York: Bantam Dell, 2004. 111-366