Humanizing Animals

Humanizing Animals

As a follow-up to Mike's question about the way Thoreau considers humans in a naturalistic sense, and in expectation of Darwin, I thought it might be useful to consider the way Thoreau considers animals. For example, the war of the ants (p. 153 Green) not only compares their war to those of men but suggests the ants might have been braver. His discussion of vegetarianism (p. 143-4 Green) considers even fishing in a negative light. He was arguably closer to, and certainly had more contact with, animals in Walden than he had with people; on 184 Green he describes a squirrel being so comfortable with him that it "occasionally stepped upon my shoe, when that was the nearest way." To what extent can we say that Thoreau treats these animals as equals?