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Thoreau’s understanding of nature and human life
Thoreau's view of nature
Thoreau’s understanding of nature and human life
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In Cannery Row by John Steinbeck and Walden by Henry David Thoreau, the key idea that society can improve through the improvement of the individual helps create an understanding that a materialistic society will result in people valuing materials over morals and values. The lack of morals will result in the dehumanizing of the individual through greed and overtaken by ambition. Thoreau in Walden talks about his plan on escaping society and on only living with the necessities. As he does this he then states, “Most of the luxuries, and many of the so called comforts of life, are not only indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind” (15). The tool that is being used in this quote is syntax more specifically it is a periodic sentence. The sentence is meant to draw …show more content…
“Contemplation” has the connotation of the worthiness to remember and to be valued. “Paltry” means small and worthless, but in the quote it has the connotation of something important. Even though the information is small it is still valuable and important. These words create a sense that in order to have a valuable life, it is necessary to absorb information that might seem insignificant, but that can result in the individual losing control of their life into the hands of fate. Thoreau’s views of luxuries can be seen by some as “paltry information”. The thing is though is that if they continue to not make dictions for themselves then people wouldn’t have control over their lives. People should abandon luxuries if they hinder society. It is their decisions that can create a society in which their life is “worthy of contemplation”. If the individuals in society do not take Thoreau’s warns about luxuries than they are only relying on fate to improve society. The people of Monterey are named and described. It then states that “Mack and the boys, too, spinning in their
These unimportant concerns are described when Thoreau writes, “ Let us settle ourselves and work and wedge our feet downward through the mud and slush of opinion, and prejudice, and tradition, and delusion, and appearance...till we come to a hard bottom and rocks in place, which we can call reality...” (Thoreau). Through the use of polysyndeton when he repeats the use of the conjunction “and”, he creates the effect that ideas like “opinion”, “prejudice”, “tradition”, “delusion”, and “appearance” are all just layers that cover and hide reality. Because of this, he stresses the importance of living simply and taking a break from society. By removing oneself from this type of toxic environment, living life more simplistically becomes easier; therefore people prevent themselves from getting involved with all those things that hide reality. In the end, the result is that it allows people to enjoy life without worry.
Both Thoreau and McCandless were against materialism. Thoreau feels that “Most of the luxuries and many of the so-called comforts of life are not only not indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind” (Thoreau, Walden 28). He thinks that dependance of worldly possessions hidera ones chance of finding their true self. McCandless had a similar mentality, and acted upon that belief. An example of this is when “…he saw the flash flood as an opportunity to shed unnecessary baggage. He concealed the car as best he could beneath a brown tarp, stripped it of its Virginia plates, and hid them” (Krakauer 29). McCandless was not tied to his own possessions, he was happy to leave them in the middle of no where. Through reduction of worldly possessions and materials, the message that both McCandless and Thoreau throw at the readers is to have a simplistic life without the concerns coming from worldly possessions. These possessions deter one from the true meaning of life.
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.
... which represents how fleeting time is. Thoreau is aware that the time he has been given is so very limited, especially compared to an eternity, but like the river, time will go on even if he isn’t alive to witness it. “I have always been regretting that I was not as wise as the day I was born.” Compared to where he was in his life when he wrote this, when he was born there was a lot less to be concerned about. Babies are able to live the simple life which Thoreau desires. When we’re young we don’t possess as much of the knowledge as we do when we get older, our intellect can be compared to time. As we grow older we gain more knowledge, the two go hand in hand, but when we are young we aren’t wise so nothing is troublesome, which is why Thoreau says he wishes he was as wise as he was when he was born, life is never as simple as it was the moment you were born.
For example, “Our life is like a German Confederacy, made of up petty states,with its boundary forever fluctuating, so that even a German cannot tell you how it is bounded at any moment.” (page 277). The German Confederacy was a group created to try to unify states. After the French Revolution things in europe got hectic. By creating the German Confederacy they tried to make everything easier and bring things back to order, but it ended up causing more of a problem. By using this simile, Thoreau was saying that life is much more complicated than it has to be. He gives the feeling of being ludicrous. That people complicate their lives with little things that don’t really matter much to the bigger picture. Another example in the text is, “ 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.” (page 280). What Thoreau is saying is the we should spend one day just being, as in living life without complications. Spend one day not getting off track and making it complicated by little things that don’t matter. Thoreau uses similes to compare life of humans to simpler things to show that we too, do not have to be complicated. But yet we are so he uses similes to clarify his
Thoreau believed that labor was not only the activity that could bring material profits, but also a play which made 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.
...nd their connection with it to find a sense of self that is fresh and different from the past. He shows his readers that they may find truth in nature. He shows his reader that they may find freedom from the burden of tradition. He shows his reader that they may be an individual within society rather than a member of it. Most importantly, though, with all of these, Thoreau teaches his readers that everyone can be a Columbus of thought.
In Thoreau's "Civil Disobedience," he uses a hyperbole to support his belief that "one person can make a change," an idea still relevant today. Thoreau uses many forms of literary techniques such as multiple hyperbole, emotional appeals, and paradoxes. Thoreau uses these to sustain his ideas on civil disobedience. He believes if you believe in something, and support something you should do whatever it takes to help the cause. Many people in today's society believe to just go with the flow, rather than living like Thoreau has, and supporting his own beliefs no matter what the consequence. Henry David Thoreau had a lot of personal authority, he was all about his own independence. Many different people believed in being a non-conformist, and Thoreau was one of them, and he very well showed how much he supported it. Thoreau was not the only nonconformist, they're many people who followed his beliefs and they refused to be bound by anybody, or anything they did not support. Other non-conformists were Gandhi, Galileo, Malcom X and many more.
From his insights, private property is a result of alienation of labor. Furthermore, the property they produced becomes the origin of future alienation. With alienation, the brain, capability, and even characters of a person become commodities that can be sold in the market. Marx claimed that capitalist hence deprived the personality of labors, though they seem to be well off. (Kolakowski, pp. 138-140) Numerous of pilgrims believe the nature, where there is no need for possessions or avarices, offers a free space for human. They escaped the capitalist society alone where alienation would no longer take place since property rights and division of labor disappear. Thoreau is probably the most famous pilgrim who built a cabin near the Walden Pond. He once stated that “Superfluous wealth can buy superfluities only. Money is not required to buy one necessity of the soul.” Commodities that can be possessed by paying money are inferior to the commodities for soul. Inspired by Thoreau, Chris is also sees money and possessions as superfluous. He castigated the corruption of politicians, burnt money to ashes after donating most of them to charity, and admired the nature in a post card saying that “The freedom and simple beauty of it is just too good to pass up.”(Krakauer, p29, p34, p123) Chris described civilization as poisonous, therefore he needed to flee from it. “No phone, no pool, no pets, no
Throughout the passage many devices appear so the reader can have a deeper understanding of Thoreau’s attitude towards life. “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. Let us rise early and fast, or break fast, gently and without perturbation;
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.
Silence fills the air. A man in his late 20’s lies in a handmade hut in a private 14 acre woodlot known as Walden Pond. Two essays are strewn across the mossy floor: Self Reliance and Nature. Suddenly, footsteps could be heard outside. It turns out that the man’s mother came with freshly baked cookies and some food for breakfast. Later on that day, more footsteps could be heard. Outside, a group of people had emerged, looking for the young man. Once again, the tranquility of Walden Pond was broken. This man was Thoreau and he was “exploring” the modest life of simplicity by separating himself from society. Living alone in the wilderness is a great way to discover nature and to understand the need for simplicity. In a world filled with bustle
To Thoreau, life’s progress has halted. It seems people have confused progression with captivity driven by materialism. To Krakaeur, people are indifferent to pursing the sublime in nature. To Christopher McCandles the world around him is forgetting the purpose of life. People are blind to nature. In the eyes of these men the world is victim to commercial imprisonment. People live to achieve statuses that only exist because man made them. Fame, money, and monotonous relationships do not exist in nature; they are the pursuits of soulless fundamentalism. The truth is that people pursue meaningless goals, and people don’t want to hear or know how they are foolish. When exposed, reality is so unsettling that it seems wrong. Yet, to be free of the falseness in life is in essence the point of singularity that people realize if there is no truth in love then it is false, if there is no truth in money then it is worthless, if there is no truth in fame then it is undeserving. Without truth everything is a worthless pursuit of a meaningless glass ceiling.
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.
Henry David Thoreau implies that simplicity and nature are valuable to a person’s happiness in “Why I Went to the Woods”. An overall theme used in his work was the connection to one’s spiritual self. Thoreau believed that by being secluded in nature and away from society would allow one to connect with their inner self. Wordsworth and Thoreau imply the same idea that the simple pleasures in life are easily overlooked or ignored. Seeing the true beauty of nature allows oneself to rejuvenate their mentality and desires. When one allows, they can become closer to their spiritual selves. One of William Wordsworth’s popular pieces, “Tintern Abbey”, discusses the beauty and tranquility of nature. Wordsworth believed that when people