Parables in Walden

[Nancy Brown]

Thoreau ends his book with the story of the bug resurecting for an applewood table some sixty years after the egg was placed in the tree. What's the point of the story? Why is it at the end of the book?

[Omniglot]

Thoreau ends his book with the story of the bug resurecting for an applewood table some sixty years after the egg was placed in the tree. What's the point of the story? Why is it at the end of the book?

Hi Nancy

I think the idea is to convey that within each of us is the real being which can rise to the surface albeit from within a society that stifles individuality and liberty. I tend to think Thoreau saw society as a stifling blanket which blinded people to the wonders of nature and humanity, which produced only clones and tyranny.

[billyjack]

Hi Nancy

I think the idea is to convey that within each of us is the real being which can rise to the surface albeit from within a society that stifles individuality and liberty. I tend to think Thoreau saw society as a stifling blanket which blinded people to the wonders of nature and humanity, which produced only clones and tyranny.

agreed. i also think the bug reference has to do with "time". thoreau was a nowist. he saw past and future as hindrances to this moment. so, the bug could also have been a clever scientific method by HDT to show the irrelevance of time.

[waldenfairy]

Thoreau was a late bloomer himself. He went day to day, stepping lightly on the earth and keeping himself a bit hidden from society. He's a character of mystery, much like that egg that soon developed into a bug. Some may see the potential, but it's not apparent to many. Many passed by that egg many times/years without noticing. Nor did people give claim to the mystery and celebrating what was to become. This is much like how people may have interacted with Thoreau during his time . . . seeing his shell but never giving thought to what was inside of him. Time does not stand still for greatness, we discover greatness with time.

[Beyond1984]

The bug story is a variant of a story on another thread. All of us from New England have visited ice houses in the late summer, but only those with ears to hear have heard the trout thrashing about on the melting blocks.

I'm living proof that death is not so real as life.

-HDT

How does it become a man to behave toward this American government today? I answer that he cannot without disgrace be associated with it.