Young man Thoreau Book

From the cover: Focusing primarily on the period between Thoreau's graduation from Harvard in 1837 and the beginning of the Walden experiment in 1845, Richard Lebeaux argues that Thoreau had a fatefully prolonged adolescence and troubled young adulthood before emerging as 'great man' at Walden and in "Walden". Making use of Eriksonian psychology and interdisciplinary approaches, the author first considers the societal, cultural, familial, and childhood roots of Thoreau's identity and identity confusion. Lebeaux then shows 'the graduate' struggling to create a moratorium for himself while staying in Concord; searching for and finding a 'great man' (Emerson) to emulate and an ideology (Transcendentalism) to embrace; and trying to become a 'traveller in Concord'. Thoreau's relationships with his parents and the community were strained, and his rivalry with his beloved elder brother John - including the rivalry for Ellen Sewall's affections - provoked deep guilt and anxiety. John's untimely death in 1842 forced Thoreau to work out his grief and guilt, prolonged his moratorium, and profoundly influenced his identity development. Finally, at Walden and in "Walden", Thoreau came as close as he ever would to achieving a satisfying identity. Lebeaux suggests that the Walden experiment and the book show Thoreau committed not only to ideals and art, but also to constructive noncommitment. Thoreau has hereby provided Americans with the archetype, in deed and word, of a psychosocial moratorium.