Essays · Chapter
The History of the Apple-Tree explained
Thoreau traces the deep historical and cultural connections between the apple tree and human civilization, from ancient Swiss lake dwellings and classical literature to its migration with settlers across America.
What happens
Thoreau traces the deep historical and cultural connections between the apple tree and human civilization, from ancient Swiss lake dwellings and classical literature to its migration with settlers across America. He celebrates the apple's beauty, fragrance, and wild essence, contrasting its ethereal qualities with commercial greed, and reflects on the natural alliances between the tree and animals.
Themes in this chapter
Nature and Simplicity
Thoreau celebrates the wild apple's natural beauty, fragrance, and the simple joy of experiencing fruit without commercial transaction.
Critique of Materialism and Business
He contrasts the ethereal, spiritual value of apples with the vulgarity of transporting them to market, where only the pulp and skin remain.
Characters to notice
- Henry David Thoreau
The narrator and observer, reflecting on the apple tree's history, its natural beauty, and the spiritual value of wild apples.
- Homer
Mentioned for describing apple trees in the garden of Alcinous and the myth of Tantalus.
- Pliny
Quoted on the weight of apples and the distinction between wild and civilized trees.
- Theophrastus
Referenced as a botanist who described and classified the apple tree.
Key passages
“There is thus about all natural products a certain volatile and ethereal quality which represents their highest value, and which cannot be vulgarized, or bought and sold.”
Natural things have an intangible, spiritual essence that cannot be degraded or traded for money.
Thoreau emphasizes the inherent worth of nature beyond commercial value.
“The apple-tree may be considered a symbol of peace no less than the olive.”
The apple tree represents peace just as much as the olive branch does.
Thoreau draws on linguistic and historical evidence to link the apple with peaceful agriculture.