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themes of Walden by Thoreau
themes of Walden by Thoreau
thoreau walden analysis
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Unexpected Critiques in Walden
In Walden, Henry David Thoreau utilizes many different styles and themes to explain his ideas about shelter in further detail. Thoreau uses lists, long and short sentences, imagery, and different narrative voices. But out of all the things Thoreau uses to strengthen his argument, the most powerful is his unexpected comparisons and his sarcasm towards shelter. Thoreau uses these to get the reader interested, but more importantly it gets the reader to reconsider his/her contentment and think about how ridiculous society was then concerning shelter.
Early in "Economy", Thoreau writes about shelter in regards to how humans first came to use and later need shelter. The passage starts off by explaining how some person a long time ago decided to dwell in a cave for shelter. Through Thoreau's word usage and imagery, his idea that humans do not need shelter is clear. He starts this argument with the topic of child rearing. He states that since a child "loves to stay out doors, even in wet and cold," the instinct to have shelter is not biological (Thoreau 28). It must be something that is taught to children, most likely from observation. At the same time no one, even Thoreau, knows where and how this instinct originated. He just knows that "in the infancy of the human race, some enterprising mortal crept into a hollow in a rock for shelter" (28). In using words and phrases like "primitive," "the infancy of the human race," and "most primitive ancestor" the reader understands how important shelter has become to the human race because it is so deeply rooted in human's minds (28).
From here Thoreau dives into a long list of how humans have developed their shelter over time, from "roofs of palm leave...
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... afford just to be "civilized." He states all the, "benefit[s] of the improvements of centuries, [like] spacious apartments... [and] Venetian blinds" (31). He finishes off this long list of expensive luxuries with the main idea of this passage: Why is the civilized man making himself more poor by renting while the savage lives in relative luxury in his "wigwam."
Thoreau's main tools in persuading the reader are his uses of light sarcasm and comparisons and critiques based on animals, savages, and civilized people. When backed up with logical reasoning, these two tools make the reader really step back and think about his/her happiness in regards to shelter. In making the reader reevaluate everything about shelter, Thoreau keeps the reader interested and in turn, the reader keeps on reading the book. Which, in fact, is all Thoreau really wants in the first place.
Thoreau uses figurative language to show how people stress about many problems in their lives and that it makes their lives difficult. For example, he states “Let us spend one day as deliberately as nature, and not be thrown off the track by every nutshell and mosquito’s wing that falls on the rails.” He compares nutshell and mosquito to irritating problems we have that we get thrown off by. He wants us to take all the junk that we don’t need out of us and focus more on living life without stress. In addition, he also mentions “In the midst of this chopping sea of civilized life, such are the clouds and storms and quicksands and thousand-and-one items to be allowed for that a man has to live.” In this text, Thoreau uses a huge metaphor to explain
As Henry is working for Waldo, he will take care of Edward who’s his son. After doing so one day, Henry is placed a very uncomfortable situation where Edward asks his mother Lydian if Henry could be his new father. Lydian then starts to want Henry gone but wants to do so by finding him a nice woman to settle down with. She tells him that and he says “you want to be a matchmaker, Lydian? Find me something innocent and uncomplicated. A shrub-oak. A cloud. A leaf lost in the snow” (Lawrence and Lee 78). By saying this Henry’s showing how he favors nature and its beauty. Adding to that, the teachings that Henrys share with others show the importance of nature. This is seen when Henry is trying to get Emily to see the fact that there’s more to Transcendentalism than being a tree-hugger and to look at nature to see its beauty. He explains this to her by telling her “what is a house if you haven’t got a tolerable planet to put it on? Did you know that trees cry out in pain when they’re cut? I’ve heard them” (Lawrence and Lee 34). With this being said, Henrys explaining that in order to have a nice place to live, nature has to be taken care of. Overall, The Night Thoreau Spent In Jail focuses on the importance of
Stacy notes that this passage is related to "a person getting a sense of their self in relation to Nature." The Web material describes Thoreau’s practice of linking landscape and identity.
Harton, Ron. "Henry Thoreau as a Model for Nature Writing." 9 August 2009. The Thoreau Reader. Online Document. 17 March 2014. .
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. He points out that although changes do happen in nature, it is not so easy to determine how they changed. He is also not sure if Thoreau’s description of “a maimed and imperfect nature” is the correct way to refer to ecology, since it is by its essence, a fluid system of changes and reactions. Cronon does not deny the impact of
We often focus on the unimportant and minor details of life. Rather than just going on about life peacefully, we tend to complicate things for ourselves by never being satisfied. Throughout the story, Thoreau uses rhetorical questions as a literary device. He questions the actions of those who surround him by asking, “Why should we knock under and go with the stream?” This is similar to asking, “Why make things harder for yourself when you can just go with the flow?” He asks, “Why should we live with such a hurry and waste of life?” This question is straightforward, simply meaning; we often tend to rush life without completely living it. Instead, we should rather pace ourselves and enjoy every present moment before it’s gone.
His desire to escape from what he entered imbibed in him an acute sense of the dangers posed by the dispassionate being that nature is. Meanwhile, Thoreau voluntarily went to Walden Pond to determine whether he is capable of earning his “living by the labor of [his] hand only” (“Economy”, par. 1). He was trying to prove his ideas on self-reliance to be correct and applicable in the real world. Thus, he had an incentive to focus on the positive aspects of being alone with the surrounding
He uses imagery to show how complicated people make life; how much of life is unnecessary. In turn, it evokes emotional responses from the readers. An example is, “ Hardly a man takes a half-hour’s nap after dinner, but when he wakes he holds up his head and asks, “what’s the news?” as if the rest of man kind had stood his sentinels. Some give directions to be waked every half-hour, doubtless for no other purpose; and then, to pay for it, they tell what they have dreamed. After a night‘s sleep the news is as indispensable as the breakfast. “Pray tell me anything new that has happened to a man anywhere on this globe”-- and he reads it over his coffee and rolls, that a man has had his eyes gouged out this morning on the Wachito River; never dreaming the while that he lives in the dark unfathomed mammoth cave of this world, and has but the rudiment of an eye himself.” (page 278). In this part of the text Thoreau explains the life of a man. In the end however, it turns into a sorrowful ending. What Thoreau was trying to say in this part of the text is that people could go experience things themselves instead of listening to stories. Instead of staying home and asking what is happening with the world, you could experience it yourself and that it is unnecessary to hear the stories in the
I awoke before the first rays of sunlight had passed through the dew-covered trees to the west today. It had rained the evening before, and the smell of wet leaves and grass was still lingering in the air.
Henry Thoreau uses specific rhetorical strategies in Walden to emanate his attitude towards life. With the use of many strategies Thoreau shows that life should be centered around Nature. People live their lives not ever taking a second glance of what Nature does and has done for humanity and Thoreau is trying to prove his point. Humanity owes Nature everything for without it humans would be nothing.
Rossi, William. “Thoreau’s Transcendental Ecocentrism.” Thoreau’s Sense of Place. Ed. Schneider, Richard J. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2000. 28-43.
Throughout Thoreau's “Walden”, he lays out many suggestions that some may take as significant or just senseless. Thoreau brings forth many concepts such as necessity, news, and labor which would benefit modern society. Yet, his views on isolation and moderation are unattainable in a technology-driven society. Even though the ideas that could benefit society may not be totally agreeable, the main reasoning for them are valid. Those ideas of isolation and moderation are clearly not possible in a world where people crave to be social and live to obtain any and everything they want.
There are several ways that Henry Thoreau's argument was effective. In my opinion his argument was effective and it had a very big impact on what he did. He stood up for what he believed in and faced the consequences that he knew he was going to face.
Many people who happen to fall into the cultural norms find Thoreau's statement to be intimidating. The way they view the world is extremely sheltered they do not choose this, it is jus t the way they are. They have always viewed the world through a screen that filters what they see. This screen is different for each individual depending on his or her cultural background and/or home environment. These factors along with many others create the screen by which they see the world.