Spring Break
'Walden' Highly Relatable, A Good Read
Book Review
Anna Blaise
Issue date: 3/12/07 Section: Focus
Ever see your life passing you by where every decision and everything you do has been made for you against your will? As if your life has been predestined due to family traditions? Well, in "Walden" by Michael T. Dolan, a young man's coming of age controlled by destiny and family traditions is told like none preceding it with a shocking ending that no one could have anticipated.
Walden, the protagonist of the novel ,grew up in a family full of traditions. In the beginning of the story, Walden tells of the startling way in which he killed his grandfather. Each year on July 4, the whole family of Waldens gather in the grandfather's mansion to perform their best patriotic songs. Walden, at the time seven years old, did not know of such tradition. All he wanted to do was play in the sand and eat hamburgers like all little kids do. When it was his turn to sing "We Are The Hawks," a family tradition song composed at the traditional university that all the Waldens have gone to, he froze and could not sing, embarrassing his dad and in turn killing his grandfather.
The book is separated into five main parts - history, biology, philosophy, recess and detention. Written as a narrative, Walden tells his life story from the day he killed his grandfather to his freshman year of college at the "University," where he killed again, in turn freeing himself from the University, the traditions of his family and the educational system.
Throughout the novel, Walden does not give specific details such as the way he looks, or how many siblings he has, or for that matter what kind of things he enjoys. Instead, Walden tells the readers his story from the past, but in the present time, hence the first year of school at the "University."
Walden tells his audience how he was named. His father, who wanted a boy to call Walden, had to keep having babies until he finally got a boy. Three girls were born before Walden XXIII. At a young age, Walden had to rehearse the Hawks song until that fatal July 4. The traditions did not end there. Of course, he had to go to the university that all the Waldens went to and live in the Walden building there.
Walden, the protagonist of the novel ,grew up in a family full of traditions. In the beginning of the story, Walden tells of the startling way in which he killed his grandfather. Each year on July 4, the whole family of Waldens gather in the grandfather's mansion to perform their best patriotic songs. Walden, at the time seven years old, did not know of such tradition. All he wanted to do was play in the sand and eat hamburgers like all little kids do. When it was his turn to sing "We Are The Hawks," a family tradition song composed at the traditional university that all the Waldens have gone to, he froze and could not sing, embarrassing his dad and in turn killing his grandfather.
The book is separated into five main parts - history, biology, philosophy, recess and detention. Written as a narrative, Walden tells his life story from the day he killed his grandfather to his freshman year of college at the "University," where he killed again, in turn freeing himself from the University, the traditions of his family and the educational system.
Throughout the novel, Walden does not give specific details such as the way he looks, or how many siblings he has, or for that matter what kind of things he enjoys. Instead, Walden tells the readers his story from the past, but in the present time, hence the first year of school at the "University."
Walden tells his audience how he was named. His father, who wanted a boy to call Walden, had to keep having babies until he finally got a boy. Three girls were born before Walden XXIII. At a young age, Walden had to rehearse the Hawks song until that fatal July 4. The traditions did not end there. Of course, he had to go to the university that all the Waldens went to and live in the Walden building there.
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Walden
posted 3/13/07 @ 10:42 AM EST
An online resource for WALDEN can be found at www.conversari.com. Here you can discuss the book at a bulletin board, download Walden's iPod, and more. (Continued…)
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