Thoreau Quiet Desperation Hard Work Has Always

Thoreau Quiet Desperation

Hard Work has always been a virtue in American society, and some say it comes from the country's Puritan heritage. If so, it could explain a great deal about how hard work has become a form of self-imposed slavery. Puritan society was highly judgmental, and society's opinion of a person could become a form of slavery; if one attempts to always fulfill what others expect of them. Henry David Thoreau, in Walden, discussed the kind of self-imposed slavery that one can become a victim to when they fall into the trap that society has created.

When discussing slavery, Thoreau explores a more diverse definition of the word than simply a legal term, he discussed the nature of slavery and its impact upon a person's psyche. According to Thoreau, who wrote Walden while slavery was still legal in some places, feels that while what he called "Negro Slavery" was wrong, it was even worse to be "the slave driver of yourself." (Thoreau 5) The author felt that self-imposed slavery was the worst kind of slavery imaginable. But why would one choose to be in such a state? Thoreau seems to blame society, or public opinion, and asserts that when a person attempts to fill a role created by society, and spend all his time, effort and resources to do so, then one has entered into a life of quiet desperation. It is better to live one's life doing what they enjoy than to live a life where one does what others expect of them and never really achieve personal fulfillment.

The term "quiet desperation" has been said to refer to "free men's mental bondage to peer pressure and career recognition." (Cain 61) In other words, men freely choose to engage in the lives and careers that are expected of them by society. For instance, people choose careers based on the amount of money or the status that can be attained by performing that job instead of choosing a career that is personally fulfilling. And since most people are heavily influenced by society's expectations, Thoreau states that "the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation." (Thoreau 5) When a person is trapped in a life that has been created under the expectations set forth through society, and not through their own personal feelings, then they exist in a state of quiet desperation from which there seems to be no escape or even hope of change.