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Motif
Explanation and Analysis—Railroads:
Railroads—a key motif in Walden—appear in one of its most famous passages in "Where I Lived, and What I Lived For":
If we do not get out sleepers, and forge rails, and devote days and nights to the work, but go to tinkering upon our lives to improve them, who will build railroads? And if railroads are not built, how shall we get to heaven in season? But if we stay at home and mind our business, who will want railroads? We do not ride on the railroad; it rides upon us. Did you ever think what those sleepers are that underlie the railroad? Each one is a man, an Irishman, or a Yankee man. The rails are laid on them, and they are covered with sand, and the cars run smoothly over them. They are sound sleepers, I assure you.
In this passage, Thoreau argues that the railroad "rides upon us," which means that the very infrastructure humans depend on actually degrades our existence. There is also a play on words in this quote—"sleepers" in the first instance refers to the wood used to build tracks (railroad ties), whereas the sleepers that "underlie" the railroad might be referring to deceased and buried humans. Furthermore, many of Thoreau's questions in this passage begin with "if" because he wants to present hypothetical questions that evolve from the premise of independent minimalism. He asks, if everyone creates a self-sufficient homestead, who would ever need a railroad? Here, the motif of railroads reminds the reader of the counterintuitive nature of urban conveniences. They only seem to make life better, but in reality, they exist as a part of a system filled with superfluous elements that, in Thoreau's opinion, block people from true and meaningful connection with nature.
This motif also appears in "Economy":
Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. They are but improved means to an unimproved end, an end which it was already but too easy to arrive at; as railroads lead to Boston or New York. We are in great haste to construct a magnetic telegraph from Maine to Texas; but Maine and Texas, it may be, have nothing important to communicate.
Railroads are one of many "pretty toys" that connect one side of the country to the other, but Thoreau wonders: to what end? What is the point of improving travel across the world when people cannot even improve their own lives at home? In sum, railroads comprise one of the most important motifs in Walden, because they represent the ills of urban life in contrast to the beautiful simplicity of life by the pond. Thoreau admires the labor that goes into building such vast infrastructure, but he believes it would be better spent on individuals' self-reliance and self-improvement.
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