Life, Death, and Regeneration
Life, death, and renewal are presented in various contexts throughout A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers. The book opens with an invocation — tacitly a dedication — to John Thoreau, Thoreau's brother, traveling companion, and friend, whose death in 1842 provided the impetus behind the writing of A Week. Thoreau's discussion of fishes — individually transient, enduring as species — in "Saturday" focuses on both life and death. The passage of man's work into nature at Billerica Falls (in "Sunday") suggests impermanence and decay, and yet, at the same time, an absorption into something higher. "Monday" includes references to the Styx (ancient river of the underworld) and Charon (ferryman of the dead). A graveyard in "Monday" and Indian burial sites in "Wednesday" elicit comments on the enrichment of soil through decay of the bodies of the dead.
A Week is essentially an optimistic book in its treatment of death. Thoreau presents death not as an end but as part of larger natural and universal processes. Death not only results in the reabsorption of the body into the earth and into nature, but also in the transition of nature and the human soul into the infinity of the universe. The seed imagery throughout the book suggests constant regeneration even as individual lives pass away. The decay of Indian bones provides rich soil in which the food of later men may be grown. Thoreau's discussion of friendship in "Wednesday" ends with the confident assertion that "Friends have no place in the graveyard." A friend who dies will live on in the memories and hearts of those left behind. In "Friday," the final chapter, Thoreau lavishly develops the fall — often viewed as a time of decay and decline — as a vital season full of the promise of future growth.
The structure of A Week and the imagery of the river both powerfully suggest the passage of time. The journey takes place over the course of a week — a defined measure of time with a distinct beginning and end — and each chapter is organized around a single day. But time continues beyond the end of any measure of it. Moreover, there is optimism in the transition from summer to fall at the end of the book, and in the implicit anticipation of spring. And while the movement of the river toward the sea suggests the flow of time and life, the sea incorporates the river and the river lives on as part of something larger than itself. Eternity, a force present side by side with death throughout A Week, diminishes the significance of death.
