Martin and Thoreau the Voyage Begins
Thoreau and Martin writers of words that led us on a journey of discovering what makes them similar as well as diverse. The paths may be different, but the destinations are the same. This adventure begins with who and why moving forward to explore figurative language and ending our little escapade with the levels of language used. Let us see if we can have some fun as we undertake this quest.
The who seems a little obvious as the main intended audience for both Thoreau and Martin is the everyday writer. Their easy laid back styles make their writings engaging and thoughtful, as well as a light read. I felt both writers were able to get across the importance they place on writing without becoming technical,
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In Thoreau’s essay, he uses figurative language when he compares the sketches of a painter done for fun to that of a writer’s spontaneous thoughts. In the second paragraph, we again see Thoreau’s use of figurative language in the form of a cliché when he states, “…ready to turn over a new leaf…” (Thoreau par. 2). He continues with this language as he compares our thoughts of ourselves to what others think of us as each being “…different editions of the same great work” (Thoreau par. 3). Martin’s use of figurative language enhances and advances his thesis, “Writing is the most easy [sic], pain-free, and happy way to pass the time of all the arts” (Martin par. 1), with his use of comedy and his myriad of stories to illustrate his point. Such as when he compares writing about Dwarfism in California to writing about it in Czechoslovakia stating, “…dealt with in [sic] California. Seven happy dwarfs… [dealt with in Czechoslovakia] seven melancholic dwarfs at best…” (Martin par. 2). Our journey as we progress forward leads us into the depths of …show more content…
Let us see where each leads us. Martin is laid back and open with his audience inviting us into his realm as if we are his friends and neighbors. He takes us on a journey through his mind asking us to see as he sees, in this way showing us how easy writing can be. Martin acknowledges that he feels California is the place to be for writers, with its always sunny weather. His comedic form of writing makes the journey swift with highs and lows as if on a roller coaster ride, ending with that abrupt stop and the joyous sounds of our fellow riders saying, do it again! Thoreau with his serious way of writing draws us in using metaphors and thought provoking statements. He has a rhythmic feel to his voice that makes us want to continue reading, as if being pulled by a mother’s voice as she sings her baby a lullaby. Thoreau’s use of words that seem antiquated to our modern ear, are that of an old world style but are easy enough for even the layman to
Thoreau, Henry David. "Walden." The Heath Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Paul Lauter. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1998. 2107-2141.
on ways to be civil but disobedient, they have opposite ways of convicing you. Dr.
In the great era of foundational philosophers, two stand out, Plato and Thoreau. Each had their own opinion on various topics, especially on civil disobedience. Plato’s life span was approximately 428-348 BC. Plato wrote numerous works throughout his lifetime, however we will be focusing on one, the Crito. Thoreau’s life span was 1817-1862. To help us determine what civil disobedience means to both of these philosophers we will first look at a general definition. According to Merriam-Webster civil disobedience is defined as “refusal to obey governmental demands or commands especially as a nonviolent and usually collective means of forcing concessions from the government.” This definition will act as a springboard to compare and contrast both of their thoughts on the topic. We will determine, according to Plato and Thoreau, when we are called to engage in civil disobedience and when the moral parameters of civil disobedience are pushed too far.
Thoreau and Socrates start Civil Disobedience and Crito with basically the same premise. They both believe that humans are essentially moral beings. Thoreau says that people if left to their own ends will act justly, and should be treated accordingly by the law. Socrates says essentially the same thing, he says that "no one wants to commit injustice" for its own sake, many people end up doing so anyway. Socrates says that the citizens of a government have entered into an agreement to abide by its laws in exchange for protection. He also says that if one believes these laws to be unjust, one can always leave, but if one agrees to abide by the laws they have a duty to be subjected to punishment if they break these laws. Thoreau on the other hand says that it is the duty of the people not to abide by a law if they perceive it to be unjust, and if they claim to be opposed to it and nevertheless abide by it, they are a hypocrite.
Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) was an American philosopher, author, poet, abolitionist, and naturalist. He was famous for his essay, “Civil Disobedience”, and his book, Walden. He believed in individual conscience and nonviolent acts of political resistance to protest unfair laws. Moreover, he valued the importance of observing nature, being individual, and living in a simple life by his own values. His writings later influenced the thoughts of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. In “Civil Disobedience” and Walden, he advocated individual nonviolent resistance to the unjust state and reflected his simple living in the nature.
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.
Thoreau wasn 't one to take advantage of what the world had to offer and just took life what it was, all while following his motto of doing what was right. Thoreau sees the miracles of the world similarly to the Whitman poem because there isn 't a limit to what can be appreciated. There are quite a few modern views that compare well to Thoreau as they take that step away from society defined by technology and progression and just take a look at the bigger picture, one of these approaches is the recent Occupy Wall Street movement.
know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my
...eeds to be challenged and according to the writer, the only way of achieving this is through the potential of the discontent. The complaints go against order and have the possibility of organizing and changing traditions. If he targeted the conformed, the efforts will result unsuccessful because changing the mind is harder that structuring an argument. The conformed have no potential to challenge order and changing their mind proves harder than organizing the minority. Thoreau’s philosophy of achieving change through the potential of the minority thus translates to his choice of audience.
Rukeyser, Muriel. "Thoreau and Poetry." Henry David Thoreau. Ed. Walter Harding, George Brenner, and Paul A. Doyle. Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1972. 103-116. Rpt. in Poetry Criticism. Ed. Ellen McGeagh and Linda Pavlovski. Vol. 30. Detroit: Gale Group, 2000. Literature Resource Center. Web. 31 Mar. 2011.
While Emerson and Thoreau certainly have difference of opinions, they recognize the need for public discussion and discourse. Emerson declares “a foolish consistency” to be “the hobgoblin of little minds” (Emerson 367). This is shown in their essays “Self-Reliance” and “Civil Disobedience” in which they support individuality and personal expression. Despite their contrasting views of society and government, the two most prominent transcendentalists in literary history share a passionate belief in the necessity that every American must exercise their constitutional rights and make known their views even and especially if it challenges the status quo.
...ing Henry David Thoreau into a prominent American Romantic writer. Such elements include his writings about life in Nature having great solitude; he became friends with the surrounding plants and animals. Secondly, he wrote about what was occurring day to day at Walden’s Pond which showed him as being individualistic. Moreover, there was the idea that God can only be found in nature, and pantheism was constant idea in his book. Finally, Thoreau wrote about intuition as a means of obtaining knowledge, and his use of senses as a tool for building intuition. These ideas time and time again show the various aspects of Thoreau being portrayed as an American Romantic which has lead to a great historical achievement as a writer that he well deserves.
Fender, Stephen. Introduction. Walden. By Henry David Thoreau. New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1997. Print.
In "Walden, Or Life in the Woods" (1995), by Henry David Thoreau, he takes a very analytical approach to his recollections of the past. Through the use of colorful descriptions, he paints a vivid account of his surrounding scenery with no detectable embellishment while providing an extremely accurate report of his experience. "But while we are confined to books, though the select and classic, and read only particular written languages, which are themselves but dialects and provincial, we are in danger of forgetting the language which all things and events speak without metaphor, which alone is copious and standard." (Thoreau 72) In this description of sound, the level of scholarly, colorful language is clearly evident. Comparing Thoreau to his modern counterpart Jack Kerouac, in "The Dharma Bums" (1958), Kerouac writes with far less colorful language but provides more detail on personal sentiment and emotion. "Far off, just the sound of the yards where they were kicking cuts of cars with a great splowm waking up all El Paso, but me." (Kerouac 154) Kerouac is still descriptive, however is much less academic in his word cho...
Walden is written by Henry David Thoreau, an American author, poet, philosopher, and a leading transcendentalist. The Walden is written in 1st person on how the author, Henry David Thoreau, was determined to find out everything he can about human nature. In order to do so, Thoreau moves to the woods because he believes that Society’s Normal concerns like, Money and material goods would block his understanding. Transcendentalism is a philosophy that emphasizes the Importance of the spiritual over the physical. Thoreau’s idea of transcendentalism stressed the importance of nature. Henry David Thoreau uses literary devices such as imagery and metaphors to assist him in getting across his concept of transcendentalism.