1. With the statement, “Most men, even in this comparatively free country, through mere ignorance and mistake, are so occupied with the factitious cares and superfluously coarse labors of life that its finer fruits cannot be plucked by them,” Thoreau is saying that many people in the world, including the United States, are not able to enjoy life because they are too preoccupied with working and earning wealth to buy unnecessary goods. Thoreau believes that men only need four things to survive: fuel, food, shelter, and clothing. However, according to Thoreau, people still strive to obtain more and more unnecessary material goods. To obtain these goods, Thoreau writes, “He has no time to be any thing but a machine,” meaning that men are so busy working to make excessive money that work consumes their entire lives. Thoreau, on the other hand, ignores “factitious cares” such as excessive wealth, furniture, and a large home, in order to enjoy his life and not be forced to live his life as a machine.
2. According to the statement, “Public opinion is a weak tyrant compared with our own private opinion. What a man thinks of himself, that it is which determines, or rather indicates, his fate,” Thoreau believes that the basis for the success of any person is his/her own individual opinion of himself/herself. Thoreau is the perfect example of his own opinion, based on his time spent living a simple life at Walden Pond. The public had varied opinions of Thoreau’s lifestyle, and Thoreau even addresses some critics in his essay. However, Thoreau himself was very content with his lifestyle, and he believed that his simple lifestyle was far superior compared to the seemingly luxurious lifestyle of men, who actually are in debt and bound to a la...
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...are extraordinarily wealthy. Even though the wealthy are trying to do good by donating money, in reality, the wealthy are simply giving away their money to people who do not necessarily need it, according to Thoreau.
Additionally, Thoreau explains that doing good is not “[feeding] me should I be starving, or [warming] me should I be cold, or [pulling] me out of a ditch if I should ever fall in one” (Thoreau 54). These actions are not goodness because these actions are not leading by example. Essentially, Thoreau believes that people need to teach others how to solve problems, not solve other people’s problems. So, those who do instead of teach are not helping society, and therefore, are not doing good. By not doing good, these people are causing more problems in society instead of helping society, because the people that need help are not receiving what they need.
Question 1: What question did Thoreau ask that Cronon is dealing with? In his journal, Thoreau muses upon twenty years of changes in New England’s land and beasts. He lists the differences in plants and animals, comparing them to past accounts and descriptions. He questions if the growing human presence has resulted in “a maimed and imperfect nature.” Cronon believes that this is an important question to consider.
Thoreau distinguishes what he wishes his life was; he compares what he wants out of life to what he currently has. He says “I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary.” He makes note of how dear and important life is, and how he wishes to live in a way which he hadn’t been before, by making the most out of the life he has left.
How people see one another vary in numerous ways, whether it be from actions or what is gathered through spoken conversations. When an intellectual meets someone for the first time, they tend to judge by appearance before they judge by how the person express their thoughts or ideas. In Thoreau’s excerpt, he emphasizes the importance of his philosophy, especially by making sure the reader is aware of his own feelings about it. He puts literary devices such as metaphors, personification, and imagery to construct his explanation for his philosophy as well as provide several attitudes to let the reader identify how he feels towards people and the value of their ideas.
When it comes to civil rights, there are two pieces of literature commonly discussed. One of these pieces is Henry David Thoreau’s persuasive lecture On the Duty of Civil Disobedience. In this work, Thoreau discusses how one must combat the government with disobedience of unjust laws and positive friction to create change. The second piece is the commonly known article Letter From a Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King Jr. This letter covers the ways in which peaceful protest and standing up against injustice can lead to positive results. Both pieces conveyed a similar message of standing up for what is right. The strongest rhetorical methods which Thoreau uses are allusions, logos, ethos and rhetorical questions. However, King’s use of
He didn 't believe that the world should stop work and live off the land, on the contrary, he believed, “The human dignity, wild life force and freedom were preserved within such a working process. Thoreau believed that labor was not only the activity that could bring material profits, but also a play which make man complete and developed simultaneously” (Ma 384). Thoreau 's work was experiencing nature and living transcendentally in order to share the quality of life that nature provides. We see Thoreau in many aspects of today 's society whether it 's Lisa from The Simpsons, a means of transportation, or political protests, they all follow a Thoreauvian idea of looking at the bigger picture and seeing what really matters. This way of thinking was created because one man decided that society was too mainstream and he moved off to the edge of town and reflected; people these days that do that are referred to as “hipsters” but the influence had to come from somewhere, and that was Henry David Thoreau. A closer reading of Thoreau 's works can put a new perspective on a common thing and provide a new outlook on life. Thoreau was not one to preach rather do something about it, not for the money or the fame but because of his “love of life— reverence for all the life in the
Despite being considered a hypocrite by his critics, Thoreau's contradictions help broaden his appeal. Often times, critics such as Schulz rely on common cliches such as the “mile” walk to Concord, and how Thoreau would feast on his mother’s “cookies.” These exact contradictions are referenced in Walden, as Thoreau remarks that he is but “a mile” from Concord, showing a self-awareness from the author. Schulz appears to believe that “Thoreau's retreat was a desperate compromise,” an excuse to allow him to write about his time in the woods. Rather, the core idea of the retreat is that through simplicity, Thoreau was allowed a richer life. Thoreau lived among his siblings, his mentors, his neighbors, enjoying the time they had together. Walden
An American Author, Transcendentalist and tax resister, Henry David Thoreau was born in Concord Massachusetts, and lived there most of his life. He was opposed to many of the things that went on in our society and debated many issues in his life. Two of these major issues are , the Mexican American War and the implement of Slavery in our society. This was the reason for many of his writings include “Slavery in Massachusetts” and “Civil Disobedience” where he wrote about his principles and views against the U.S government and their involvement in the Mexican American War and the evil of Slavery. Thoreau opposed to these because they promote unjust government practices which he was strongly against.
Yet, in Thoreau’s view, many take it too far. Some sacrifice happiness for altruistic causes; others relinquish self-fulfillment for these missions. After first promoting his reader to stand for those causes, he reveals some caveats with a full preoccupation with activism. He writes, “I have other affairs to attend to. I came into this world, not chiefly to make this a good place to live in, but to live in it” (Civil Disobedience 172). Thoreau acknowledges that self-sacrifice, while noble, is not what the transcendentalists support. Although this may be in line with an ardent moral conscience, it fails to consider the whole self. The person in question would start living for the results. He or she would aim to please others and not him or herself. To live meaningfully, Thoreau advises individuals to take care of themselves and make sure that whatever they offer the world comes from their entire effort. Like Emerson, Thoreau makes it clear that the self, above all else, must grow independently to enjoy the
He states that he had not paid a poll tax for over six years and that he even spent time in jail for it; never letting it once crush his motivation. Further, he pities the government because they can’t make him do anything he does not want to do because he is willing to face the physical punishment immediately following. While in jail, he mentions his roommate – an honest and intellectual man – who had been accused of burning down a barn. Thoreau realized his earlier point, that one is better off fighting injustice if they had experienced it first, while in jail and learned the other world which was just beyond the chain-link fences in his own native town. Thoreau doesn’t believe it to be sinful that he often thinks about how men should be instead of accepting who they really are – truly due to the injustices he sees. He doesn’t see politicians as leaders, but as followers to the Constitution, and further, to the men who devised it. Respect for the strides America takes to maintain democracy is established, but the question of whether democracy is really the final step in establishing the near perfect is equally as respected by Thoreau. Thoreau concludes with his strong-willed voice, but now expresses hope for the future of America and its evolving
In Henry Thoreau’s essay, Resistance to Civil Government, the harmless actions he takes to rebel against the government are considered acts of civil disobedience. He talks about how the government acts wrongful such as, slavery and the Mexican-American war. This writing persuades Nathaniel Heatwole, a twenty-year-old college student studying at Guildford College in Greensboro, North Carolina, to take matters into his own hands, by smuggling illegal items on multiple Southwest airplanes. The reason in that being, is to show the people that our nation is unsafe and dangerous. In doing this, he takes his rebellion one step too far, by not only jeopardizing his life, but as well as many other innocent lives.
In the modern world, people posses more than what they can actually keep tract of physically and mentally. Everyone wants to live the “good life” where they can have no limits to the things they want. Whether it is clothes, cars, jewelry, or houses, the need to buy things that are affordable and are in style preoccupies the minds of many people. The argument for necessity goes against this way of modern living, but agrees with Thoreau's view on it. The argument is that people should have enough of each just ...
Thoreau mentions a few times in “Walden” that life may not seem as great to the poor, but deep down it really is. He mentions that we should all meet our lives and live it. We shouldn’t be embarrassed about how our life is at all. It may not be to our liking, but we should face it head on and make the effort to change it. Thoreau mentions that our life “looks poorest when you are richest.” Richer people are out of touch with the real world. They don’t know how it feels to be in debt. That is why the poor have a better handle on their lives than people who aren’t living in poverty. Thoreau also tells us to love our lives no matter how poor we are. The rich have more faults in paradise than the ones in poverty. The article, “Walden” by Linda Corrente states that Thoreau “urges us to meet our lives, regardless of what they hold for us.” People in poverty already do that. They are aware of the hardships and have faced different ways to beat it.
Throughout the essay from Walden by Henry David Thoreau he often refers to self reliance and simplicity throughout the essay. He believes that its important for an individual to live independently from
The main element of “Why I Went to the Woods” is nature and to live without distractions. In order for Thoreau to be able to do this, he went into the woods to be one with nature to make sure he was not missing what was really important. Thoreau presents his point by stating, “I wanted to live deep and suck out the marrow of life, to live so sturdily” (Thoreau 579). Thoreau wanted to live deep within nature, to take in all nature has to offer, and to get a deeper understanding of his own life. We all have an opportunity to have the same tranquility as Thoreau. Nature is one of the greatest gifts that is given to us freely. We could all have a deeper fulfillment by consuming the same peacefulness in our own mind and souls that Thoreau had. The society we live in today is complex and very dependent, opposite of the life that Thoreau had wanted to live. You do not need to have material items to have a fulfilled life, but a fulfilled spirit. We as a society have become greedy and selfish
To him, reality and nature symbolized this higher truth, and, hence, universal laws are perceived in his work (Manzari 3). One specific theme involved the simultaneous relationship between the individual and government. “Civil Disobedience” embodied the ideal that citizens within the scope of government should do what they personally think is right and not what government dictates. Thoreau’s works constantly confronted the injustices perpetuated by the government (Harding and Meyer 135). Explicitly, “Civil Disobedience” discussed the topic of slavery and how Thoreau was morally opposed to the idea in its entirety. He paid homage to the fact that expediency does not take priority over justice. Meaning, the concept of slavery was all too convenient because nobody thought of an intellectual alternative. Thoreau believed in the notion of equality through his writings of, “…my government which is the slave’s government also” (Thoreau 3). The moral of his writings incorporated the ideal that no matter what the costs may be, justice must advance in society because, as humans, we are “ethically and morally obligated” to do the right thing (Neufeldt and Smith 70). He also focused on the contradictory platform of so-called democracy and ultimately the only option to refute such governmental flaws was to become civilly disobedient. On the other hand, in Walden,