Walden: Analyzing the Text

In Chapter Three, Thoreau introduces the theme of immortality through literature. At first, he suggests the immortality of ideas and ideals ­ of truth ­ through literature. However, his invocation of individual writers, particularly Homer, author of the Iliad, immortalizes the human being in print. Thus, Thoreau implies the possibility of immortality for himself. If Homer can be made to live again when his words are read aloud, perhaps Thoreau can gain a degree immortality through his published words. In the nineteenth-century, traditional Christian beliefs regarding the afterlife had begun to crumble ­ especially for people like Thoreau, who had sought alternate paths to spirituality. Faced with the death of his brother, Thoreau would have had to evaluate his own mortality and beliefs regarding life after death. Therefore, Walden is in part an attempt to immortalize himself through writing.