Thoreau’s Divide: Rediscovering the Environmentalist/Agriculturalist Debate in Walden’s ‘Baker Farm’

Abstract

Believes the “Baker Farm” chapter of Walden is an example of the long-running tensions between environmentalist activists and agriculturalists. Suggests the chapter should be read as satire: the narrator’s arrogance is positioned by Thoreau as a comic airing of the author’s own anxieties over his role as dispenser of potentially unwelcome theoretical advice. Believes “Baker Farm” should be viewed in the light of the conflict between environmental activism and agricultural practice. Throughout Walden, Thoreau formulates his own thoughts on sustainable living in the relative isolation of his own mind and, like the contemporary environmental activist, he is invested in the reception of his ideas by other practitioners and anxious to envision reader reactions. Concludes “Baker Farm” is in keeping with the punning humor elsewhere in Walden as it allows the author to satirize both himself and other theoreticians while exorcising his anxiety over the reception of his message. Further, evidence of this ideological divide provides readers with an opportunity to evaluate the relationship between theory and sustainable life practices.