Haoran Zhi

Close Reading of Passage from Walden

“The mass of men lead lives of …… not to do desperate things.” (973)

Besides the meaning for the complete lack of hope, “desperation” has another meaning
in the OED: “

Despair leading to recklessness, or recklessness arising from despair; a desperate state of

mind in which, on account of the hopelessness or extremely small chance of success, one is

ready to do any violent or extravagant action, regardless of risks or consequences.”

In this paragraph the meaning of “desperation” seems to show less of a strong

connotation of reckless action than simple complete lack of hope. Because considering the

recklessness caused by despair, desperation is certainly not quiet in terms of the intensity of

reckless action unless Thoreau is intentionally making a contrast here. In this sense the

inherent loudness of desperation is certainly repressed by “the mass of men” which makes

their attitude a passive one. If there is quiet desperation, is there loud desperation too? It

seems like what Thoreau is doing at Walden is a direct result of recklessness caused by

despair. Having realized the true nature of mankind and giving up everything to live in the

woods without considering the result is an action already extravagant enough and

comparing with the mass of men, it indeed belongs to the category of “loud desperation”.

The first two sentences of this paragraph are declarative sentences. A valid question to

ask when reading this statement would be “Do the mass of men acknowledge that they are

leading lives of quiet desperation and succumb to it anyway or this is only a statement made

by a person who acknowledges this fact while the majority of men themselves don’t have
this realization? Or in other words, are they aware of the fact that they become what

Thoreau says in the last paragraph “the slave and prisoner of his own opinion of himself” or

“machines”. One answer would be they’ve realized it but compliance is their choice rather

than loudly expressing their despair like what Thoreau did. This means it’s a passive reaction

of the mass of men towards the revelation which gives credits to the “quiet desperation”.

And it’s in accordance with the last sentence too. There’s a mocking tone here which makes

it sound like what is actually a wisdom thing to do is to do desperate things like Thoreau

himself did. But on the other hand, this revelation certainly doesn’t come naturally to

people who are already the “slave and prisoner” as they usually have no access to the

resources like Thoreau has that would lead them to this philosophical thinking and

conclusion. It’s very likely that the mass of men do not have a clear image of where they’re

at and “quiet” here simply indicates that the mass of men do not know.