Rahul Doraiswami

Period 1
Dialectical Journal for Thoreau’s Walden and Civil Disobediance

1. “I see young men, my townsmen, whose misfortune it is to have inherited

farms, houses, barns, and cattle, and farming tools; for these are more easily
acquired than got rid of”
o Thoreau believes that inheritance is a bad thing, especially when it
comes to jobs. According to him, when one is forced, for whatever
reason, be it inheritance, pressure, etc., to work a certain job, he or she
will resent it. This hints at the significance of the difference of
interests between successive generations. Often, children take
pleasure in seeking an occupation that is far different from their
parents. This is due to numerous reasons- a desire to stand out,
rebellion, etc.
2. “The portionless, who struggle with no such unnecessary inherited
encumberances, find it labor enough to subdue and cultivate a few cubic feet
of flesh”
o Thoreau’s belief is that those who are “gifted” with inheritances are, in
reality, burdened. He goes so far as to say that people without these
inheritances are better off, and that without them, individuals are
capable of “truly living”. In addition, he says that the people who are
suffering through poverty, though they struggle, live a more
wholesome life.
3. “So much for a blind obedience to a blundering oracle, throwing the stones
over their heads behind them, and not seeing where they fell.”
o In this metaphor, Thoreau tells us the error of following the advice of
others. In addition to this, he claims that we are all experiments, and
that the advice of others does not affect, or in fact takes away from,
our own experience. Relating to the quote at hand, I believe that
Thoreau is saying that when others give us advice, no matter how
heartfelt it may seem, in actuality, their advice is meaningless. Our
lives are independent of one another, and thus experience-based
advice from another will not help us in living our own lives; this is
similar to how when an oracle does not see the stones he throws, the
advice is meaningless.
4. “Most men are so occupied with the factitious cares and superfluously coarse
labors of life that its finer fruits cannot be plucked by them.
o In this quote, Thoreau says that when men are occupied with their
work, they cannot enjoy life. This is partially true. However, I believe
that it does not apply in today’s society, in which hard work is the only
way to be financially secured. Without establishing a “safety net” on
which to fall back on, it is impossible to live a fun life, and this is the
reason so many people in America are in debt.
5. “I sometimes wonder that we can be so frivolous, I may almost say, as to
attend to the gross but somewhat foreign form of servitude called Negro
slavery”
o I think that in this quote, Thoreau is saying that he is shocked at the
number of people who attend to minor issues of commerce and fail to
see the bigger issues that plague America. The enslavement of others
is a direct violation to the Constitution that is esteemed by so many,
yet they prioritize their personal business issues over it. I believe, in a
more general perspective, Thoreau is saying that we should put aside
our personal problems and work together to rid America of its major
issues.
6. “Public opinion is a weak tyrant compared with our own private opinion.
What a man thinks of himself, that is which determines, or rather indicates,
his fate.”
o In this quote, Thoreau says that the opinion of others is not as
important as self-perception. He then goes on to say that what one
thinks of himself/herself is what determines his/her future. This
concept is related to the famous quote from the Budha: “so you think,
so you are”. Both ideas are similar in that they both describe a direct
link between confidence and success.
7. “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is
confirmed desperation”
o Thoreau believes that most working men are in depsair
8. “When we consider what, to use the words of the catechism, is the chief end
of man, and what are the true necessaries and means of life, it appears as if
men had deliberately chosen the common mode of living because they
preferred it to any other.”
9. “Age is no better, hardly so well, qualified for an instructor as youth, for it has
not profited so much as it has lost. One may almost doubt if the wisest man
has learned anything of absolute value by living. Practically, the old have no
very important advice to give the young, their own experience has been so
partial and their lives have been such miserable failures, for private reasons,
as they must believe; and it may be that they have some faith left which
belies that experience, and they are only less young than they were.
o In Walden, Thoreau addresses the popular belief that with age comes
wisdom. He claims that this is in no way true,
10. “Some things are really necessaries of life in some circles, the most helpless
and diseased, which in others are luxuries merely, and in others still are
entirely unkown.”
11. “The greater part of what my neighbors call good I believe in my soul to be
bad, and if I repent of anything, it is very likely to be my good behavior.”
12. “One generation abandons the enterprises of another like stranded vessels.”
13. “The grand necessity, then, for our bodies, is to keep warm, to keep the vital
heat in us… The luxuriously rich are not simply kept comfortably warm, but
unnaturally hot; as I implied before, they are cooked, of course, a la mode.”
 o Thoreau makes an interesting analogy in Walden.
14. “There can be no very black melancholy to him who lives in the midst of
Nature and has his senses still.”
15. “Government is at best but an expedient; but most governments are usually,
and all governments are sometimes, inexpedient. The objections which have
been brought against a standing army, and they are many and weighty, and
deserve to prevail, may also at last be brought against a standing
government.”
16. “This American government- what is it but a tradition, though a recent one,
endeavoring to transmit itself unimpaired to posterity, but each instant
losing some of its integrity? It has not the vitality and force of a single living
man; for a single man can bend it to his will.”
o
17. “The character inherent in the American people has done all that has been
accomplished; and it would have done somewhat more, if the government
had not sometimes got in its way.”
o I strongly believe with Thoroeau’s statement. It is a fact that America
was not created by a government, but by a group of dedicated people
who fought for what they believed in. In reality, a government is
nothing more than a concept. Governments are names given to a
group of people in control of something. It could be said that the
government of America was not composed of Benjamin Franklin or
Thomas Jefferson, but of the soldiers who shed their blood for the
very country they live in.
18. “After all, the practical reason why, when the power is once in the hands of
the people, a majority are permitted, and for a long period continue, to rule,
is not because they are the most likely to be in the right, nor because this
seems fairest to the minority, but because they are physically the strongest.
o In this quote, Thoreau describes the injustice that accompanies an
overpowering group of people. These people, most often, come to
power because they are plainly stronger than other people, either
mentally or physically. Take for example, the dictator Hitler, who
remained in power because of his insurmountable army. He was only
removed from his position (or from the living world I should say)
when his army was defeated and he was powerless.
19. “The mass of men serve the state thus, not as men mainly, but as machines,
with their bodies. They are the standing army, and the militia, jailers,
constables, posse comitatus, etc.”.
o In this quote, Thoreau attacks the worship of soldiers. He labels them
machines and instruments of war and torture that the government
mercilessly uses. I somewhat agree with this quote. Any army is
voluntary, and the choice to enlist is not always so honorable. In
joining any branch of the U.S. military, you choose to be at the mercy
of the hierarchy of officers and commanders that ultimately leads to
the government. Fighting for a war that you do not support shows that
 you voluntarily gave up fighting for your cause. However, Thoreau
forgets to consider the soldiers who enlist for money, opportunities,
or other benefits. These individuals choose the army as a gateway to a
better life, and thus are not so interested in fighting as they are in
bettering their lives.
20. “Such command no more respect than men of straw or a lump of dirt. They
have the same sort of worth only as horses and dogs. Yet such as these even
are commonly esteemed good citizens. Others, as most legislators, politicians,
lawyers, ministers, and office-holders, serve the state chiefly with their
heads; and, as they rarely make any moral distinctions, they are as likely to
serve the devil, without intending it, as God.”
o I completely agree with what Thoreau says here. People who choose
to fight wars they do not believe in deserve no respect. They claim
that they detest the war at hand, yet see a reason to, in a sense, donate
their bodies to the U.S. government. They undergo a transformation
from human beings to mindless weapons. In addition, I like how
Thoreau likens the government office-holders to misled preachers.
Religion was still a huge part of life during his time, and he
emphasized his point here by taking advantage of the religious fervor
of society.
21. “All men recognize the right of revolution; that is, the right to refuse
allegience to, and to resist, the government, when its tyranny or its
inefficiency are great and unendurable. But almost all say that such is not the
case now. But such was the case, they think, in the Revoultion of ’75. If one
were to tell me that this was a bad government because it taxed certain
foreign commodities brought to its ports, it is most probable that I should not
make an ado about it, for I can do without them.”
o Here Thoreau talks about how the revolution that is necessary to
improve the current “flawed” government. He likens it to the the
American Revolution, taking advantage of pathos, yet again. America
was still a newly formed nation (still without a literary identity) and
therefore the Revolution still brought about a heroic feeling in
American minds. By invoking the emotions associated with the
American Revolution, he stirred up the people’s fervor for a
“government revolution”.
22. “All voting is a sort of gaming, like checkers or backgammon, with a slight
moral tinge to it, a playing with right and wrong, with moral questions; and
betting naturally accompanies it… Even voting for the right is doing nothing
for it. It is only expressing to men feebly your desire that it should prevail. A
wise man will not leave the right to the mercy of chance, nor wish it to
prevail through the power of the majority.”
o In this statement, Thoreau attacks the idea of voting being an accurate
individual representation. He claims that, due to the huge population
that constitutes America, a simple vote will do nothing but claim you
support a certain take on a decision. Instead, Thoreau would believe
 that persuading others to vote in the same way you did would be a
much better way of fixing problems with the government.
23. “The soldier is applauded who refuses to serve in an unjust war by those who
do not refuse to sustain the unjust government which makes the war; is
applauded by those whose own act and authority he disregards and sets at
naught; as if the state were penitent to that degree that it hired one to
scourge it while it sinned, but not to that degree that it left off sinning for a
moment.”
o In this quote, Thoreau tries to call into question what a soldier is
inspired by to fight in wars. He says that when a soldier refuses to
fight, he in fact receives more applause than he would have received if
he fought.
24. “As for adopting the ways which the State has provided for remedying the
evil, I know not of such ways. They take too much time, and a man’s life will
be gone. I have other affairs to attend to. I came into this world, not chiefly to
make this a good place to live in, but to live in it, be it good or bad. A man has
not everything to do, but something; and because he cannot do everything, it
is not necessary that he should do something wrong.”
o I feel like Thoreau contradicts himself here. Throughout the entire
article, he chastised the government, criticizing its lack of a true
representation of America. However here he claims that it is not his
duty to revolt and fight for a more representative government.
However there is some sense in his words. He says that though the
government is flawed, it is not his goal to make amends to it. He came
into this world, not just to make a difference, but also to live in it.
25. “I am not responsible for the successful working of the machinery of society.
I am not the son of the engineer. I perceive that, when an acorn and a
chestnut fall side by side, the one does not remain inert to make way for te
other, but both obey their own laws, and spring and grow and flourish as best
they can, till one, perchance, overshadows and destroys the other. If a plant
cannot live according to its nature, it dies; and so a man.”
o I feel like this analogy seems out of place in this article, for it describes
the relationship between men and not between man and government.
Nevertheless, it is a very insightful comparison. Thoreau claims that
the paths of two men, though very close (the acorns fall side by side)
are independent. I feel as if this pertains more to the first article more
than the second, as it is more evidence as to why advice from one is
irrelevant to another.