The Nature of Thoreau's Politics: "Wild Apples" and Abolitionism Open Access
Webster, Lucy Grace (2016)
Abstract
This paper examines Henry David Thoreau's 1862 essay "Wild Apples" in its proper literary and historical contexts, with an emphasis on its place in Thoreau's corpus. Previous interpretations of "Wild Apples" are examined, and features of the text neglected by prior investigations of the text are considered for pertinence in comprehending "Wild Apples." The essay shares several characteristics with Thoreau's overtly political essays, inviting a consideration of the text's potential political content. The natural imagery present in Thoreau's political texts is briefly discussed to illustrate that natural and political discourses are not two distinct topics in Thoreau's writing; these topics overlap and intermingle. An illustration of the text's connections to John Milton's Paradise Lost and Andrew Marvell's "An Horatian Ode upon Cromwell's Return from Ireland" follow to demonstrate the text's political implications. The text's relationship to Marvell's ode is the basis for asserting a connection between "Wild Apples" and Thoreau's essays on John Brown. Ultimately, this paper concludes that "Wild Apples" can be interpreted as a simple, fantastical essay on apples, and concomitantly, it may be interpreted as an abolitionist essay reflecting upon the characteristics of men like John Brown in the years leading up to the American Civil War.
Table of Contents
Introduction....................................................................................................1
Chapter 1: Critical Interpretations of "Wild Apples"............................................7
Chapter 2: The Nature of Thoreau's Politics......................................................18
Chapter 3: Thoreau's Reception and Stylistic Shifts...........................................42
Chapter 4: Paradise Lost and "Wild Apples"......................................................51
Chapter 5: "The Air in Which They Hang": The Transfiguration of John Brown....62
Chapter 6: "Geographical Morality" and the Fruit of Abolitionism......................73
Chapter 7: "Wild Apples" and Marvell's "Horatian Ode".....................................90
Conclusion....................................................................................................98
Works Cited..................................................................................................105
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