Americanizing the hero: Thoreau's extension of Carlylean heroism

This study investigates the connection with and influence of Carlyle on selected works of Thoreau, principally Walden. While at Harvard, Thoreau studied Carlyle, and one of the few books he took with him to Walden Pond was Carlyle's Complete Works. While there, he wrote a lengthy essay "Thomas Carlyle and His Works" in which he lauds Carlyle's style and specifically addresses Carlyle's On Heroes, Hero-Worship and the Heroic in History.; Yet in spite of his obvious study of and interest in Carlyle, no full investigation of Thoreau's integration of Carlylean concepts of heroism in Walden has been done. Thoreau was aware that many Americans considered leaders of movements as cult heroes and even referred to Transcendental thinkers like Emerson as "heroic," but this concept of heroism Thoreau never embraced. Rather, the heroic American for Thoreau harkens back to Carlyle's models of: hero as divinity, prophet, poet, priest, man of letters, and king. But, Thoreau does not hesitate to alter those models to reflect more fully his contemporary American culture. Like Emerson, Thoreau never wanted to be a "cult hero" for the transcendentalists, but he recognized and embraced some aspects of Carlyle's concept of heroism, Americanizing it to reflect the cultural values of his world. Drawing upon Carlyle's three principal virtues that the hero demonstrates---valor, sincerity, discernment of Truth---Thoreau brings these into an American context, applying them to heroic abolitionists, the passive resistor, the naturalist, nature itself, and even the industrial expansionist. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)...