describes. Thoreau’s nonconformist and rebellious traits, especially his inability to have close friends, go all the way back to his earliest years. It is important to remember “Most behavior grows out of experiences with the environment” (Candland & Campbell, 57). This behavior is known as learned behavior, which classifies almost all behavior besides born natural instincts and physical conditions. Thoreau is no exception to this rule. When he was in his youngest developmental stages his family was very poor, and always on the move, which left him without a stable environment. Lack of a stable environment at early ages puts a child under much stress, and makes it hard for him to distinguish between the traits he should be learning. A child needs a consistent exposure to his surroundings and a stable relationship with people around him in order to learn without confusion. All the different faces Thoreau became acquainted with when he was youngest left him in a state of undeveloped sociability outside his close family, and the differences in his surroundings left him finding it hard to relate to the outside world as a normal child. Thoreau’s now crippled sociability increased the difficulty for him to make friends, and he may have even been teased or taunted by his peers. Now without boyhood companionship in the school or town, he would have to look for it within the family. Yet he was only to find an older brother whom, as older brothers often do, precluded his smaller, slower little brother, and Thoreau did not find it fit to have a his little sister for his closest friend. His father was more of a disciplinary figure than a companion, as most fathers of the time period were, and the womanly friendship he had with his mother still left him without real camaraderie. Henry turned to the woods and nature, and here he found beauty and solitude. He found a warmth that somehow eased his need for companionship, and an ...
