In one way or the other, both Darwin and Thoreau were pondering over the existence of similarities among human beings. Darwin studied in how human and other organisms were biologically related. He postulated that most of the organisms originated from the same ancestry but evolve over time to become the present different species (Kutschera 82). Darwin also gave a detail on how organisms evolved over time to become what they are today. Similarly, Thoreau examined the emotional relationship among human beings and other species. He gave details on how human beings fit within a natural environment and how they have survived all the way to the present day. He also examined how humanity should respond in order to continue surviving in the environment (Thoreau 2).
Before Thoreau could start working on Walden, he got an access to Darwin’s Voyage of the Beagle. He had the opportunity to interact with the content of the book before he could start writing his own. Just before Thoreau died, it was evidenced that he took a lot of time reading the Origin of Species. This is an indication that Thoreau had a special liking towards the works of Darwin. Maybe he borrowed some arguments from the book which he used in Walden. Even though the Origin of Species and Voyage of the Beagle were two different books, the author was one; therefore one expects some relations in ideas and arguments. Life in the voyage was relatively simple. On the other hand Thoreau advocates for simplicity in his book. In his book the Origin of Species Darwin postulated that life started from “simple” forms to more complex ones. This therefore indicates the similarity in the themes of the three books, “simplicity”.
Origin of Species and Walden were written 5 years apart. There is no evidence that Darwin wrote the book before reading Walden, but what looks like a coincidence is that Thoreau was the first American to support Darwin’s theory of natural selection and the origin of species. People believe that from reading Darwin’s book Thoreau decided to start the Concord Museum. He used the principles from the book to enable him come up with the idea of Concord.
Both Darwin and Thoreau were confrontationists. Thoreau’s ideas and methodologies were against the belief of the society. His beliefs in life and survival were questioned and contradicted by many scholars, this did not stop him. Darwin on the other hand went against the paradigm of scientific research (Kutschera 69). His defiance almost led him to being kicked out of the scientists association. In both the cases they did not relent, they proceeded with what they believed in despite of the external influences. Above all they were both evolutionary scientists. Their laws did not only apply to the existence of fauna and flora but went deep into examining their origin.
Works Sited
Thoreau, Henry David, and Jeffrey S. Cramer. Walden. Yale University Press, 2006.
Kutschera, Ulrich. "Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species, directional selection, and the evolutionary sciences today." Naturwissenschaften 96.11 (2009): 1247-1263.
