Character analysis
John Field
in Walden by Henry David Thoreau
John Field shows up in the chapter "Baker Farm" as a stark contrast to Thoreau's ideas about living intentionally and simply. An Irish immigrant laborer, Field resides with his wife and children in a run-down, rain-soaked hut near Flint's Pond, struggling with poverty despite—or perhaps because of—his relentless, exhausting labor. Thoreau encounters the family while seeking refuge from a sudden downpour and tries to impart his economic philosophy: by minimizing desires and embracing simplicity, Field could work significantly less, eat more modestly (giving up coffee, meat, and butter), and thus gain true freedom and leisure.
Field listens but struggles to understand or accept Thoreau's perspective. He is bound by inherited beliefs about what makes a life respectable—the "bog" of old-country traditions and the American dream of ascending through hard work. His wife, described as "brave" but complicit in the family's toil, along with his "wrinkled, sibyl-like" child, emphasize the picture of a family trapped in cycles of need. Despite Thoreau's sincere advice, Field returns to fishing with a worm hook instead of embracing Thoreau's lighter, more philosophical way.
Thoreau shows Field real sympathy but also a bit of condescension, ultimately deciding that Field is burdened by "boggy ways" he cannot shake off. Field serves as a cautionary symbol of unthinking labor, highlighting the benefits of Thoreau's experiment at Walden Pond by contrast. His journey remains static—he doesn't change—which is exactly Thoreau's point.
Connected characters
- Henry David Thoreau
Thoreau is Field's uninvited philosophical mentor during the Baker Farm episode. He shelters in Field's hut, offers detailed economic advice on how to escape poverty through simplicity, and fishes alongside him—yet ultimately judges Field incapable of rising above his habitual, unreflective way of life. The relationship is simultaneously compassionate and condescending, and it defines Field's entire role in the text.
- Former Inhabitants of Walden Woods
Like the former inhabitants of Walden Woods whom Thoreau memorializes, Field represents the rural poor struggling at the margins of society. Both groups serve as contrasts to Thoreau's chosen simplicity, though the former inhabitants are recalled with elegy while Field is encountered in the living present, making his failure to change all the more pointed.
- Alex Therien (the Canadian Woodchopper)
Alex Therien (the Canadian Woodchopper) and John Field occupy parallel positions as working-class figures Thoreau observes closely. Where Thoreau finds in Therien a kind of unconscious natural nobility, he finds in Field only entrenched habit and missed opportunity—making the two men implicit foils that together define the range of Thoreau's attitudes toward laboring men.