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Thoreau’s ideas about Nature
Thoreau’s ideas about Nature
Thoreau’s ideas about Nature
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In the story Walden by Henry David Thoreau, he created a story that is based on simple living in natural surroundings. He influenced American readers with his stories. His stories have been translated from English to foreign languages many times. Writing his story Walden he added a variety of similes.
Using similes can help make the story have a better connection with the reader and nature. "Still we live meanly, like ants;" is a type of simile he used. Similes are when you use like or as to compare one thing to another. What he's comparing here is humans to ants. Thoreau, in this story, is talking about surrounding yourself with nature, so him comparing humans to a little bug would be his way to connect nature to humans. He believes humans are wasting their times with just staying in doors and doing nothing. To him, people should be out with nature taking in how beautiful it is and we need to start recognizing what we are surrounded by.
Thoreau's, when he uses figurative language, he connects
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This meaning the outdoors and being with nature. He was capable of expressing severe or bare in appearance reality using strong language. He conveyed delicate details and subtle different in or shade of meaning. Applying himself to what he observed of nature and humanity into his own words.
Thoreau put a lot of effort into his word choice. He used strong, powerful wording to describe and compare humans to nature. He wrote in a journal about everyday, giving off what he examined or experienced with his life out with nature. He make this story to compare what he saw when he was with humanity to when he was with nature. He chose nature over everyone else. He explains in his own words how nature was better than humanity and he talks about how humanity should realize what they are surrounded by instead of sitting around and not realizing how beautiful our earth
In Norman Maclean's A River Runs Through It, the author recounts the story of his early life growing up in Montana. The narrative revolves around his family and the art of fly fishing. Through the novel, Maclean begins to understand the wisdom of his father, the fierce independence and downfall of his brother, and the divinity and beauty of nature. A similar theme regarding divinity in nature is found in Henry David Thoreau's Walden. Building his own cabin and supplying his own food, Thoreau spends two years living alone beside Walden Pond. Thoreau recognizes nature as the "highest reality"(265) and the intrinsic work of "the Builder of the universe"(348). Thoreau also provides insights into human life and expresses these in indirect metaphors with his natural surroundings. The narratives differ most in their changes in mood and plot progression. In Walden, Thoreau displays a change from beginning to end, expressing pessimism and depression at first and then happiness and fulfillment in the end. A River Runs Through It is largely opposite of this change. Thus, both authors relate similar themes and experiences while significant differences exist in the mood and progression.
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. .
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
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.
Like many great authors, both past and present, Henry David Thoreau uses literary techniques not limited to Greek mythological allusions. Throughout his masterpiece, Walden, mythological allusions are made from his ideas of life and his thoughts about his present state of the environment. Thoreau uses a mythological allusion when he states that, “They [the beans] attached me to the earth, and so I got strength like Antaeus.” (Thoreau, 1849) Although Thoreau wrote Walden many centuries after the Greek civilization had been wiped out, the historical use of strength as exemplified in the myth of Antaeus drives many themes throughout Walden.
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
The love for nature is one that is formed when young. Thoreau shows evidence of early development of a lifelong love for nature that he would carry with him in everything that he did. As a young boy of ten he was fond of walking deep into the woods that surrounded his home in Concord in search of solitude (Salt 18). Thoreau expressed an interest in living at Walden Pond at the age of ten (Salt 19). His love of nature can largely be credited to qualities inherited from his mother (Salt 22). It would rightfully be his love of nature that he would be remembered for.
To conclude, Thoreau believed that people should be ruled by conscience and that people should fight against injustice through non-violence according to “Civil Disobedience.” Besides, he believed that we should simplify our lives and take some time to learn our essence in the nature. Moreover, he deemed that tradition and money were unimportant as he demonstrated in his book, Walden. I suggested that people should learn from Thoreau to live deliberately and spend more time to go to the nature instead of watching television, playing computer games, and among other things, such that we could discover who we were and be endeavored to build foundations on our dreams.
In Thoreau’s excerpt of “Walden”, he writes about moving to the forest to live in a cabin. He gets away from the busy world around him and secludes himself to nature. While living out in the forest, Thoreau would take the time to enjoy the beauty of nature and come back to the cabin and write about it. In Emerson’s excerpt of “Nature”, he writes about the relationship of humans and 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.
In Thoreau’s view, he felt that the government was insufficient. He didn’t need the laws to be just, he used his conscious and morality. He was compelled to do what morally was right, rather than it being based on government issued laws such as the complacent society there is today. People seem to care about justice, yet are immoral. This was the message Thoreau was trying to get across.
Henry David Thoreau wanted to express his thoughts to the world. He did so by writing Walden a book that gives insights on the world from Thoreau’s point of view. “Walden” gives valuable advice in all types of fields. It shows aspects of Thoreau’s personality and how he views the world. To the best of my knowledge, Henry has many characteristics that he expressed in this book. Most of what he wrote was impressive. Honestly, I was extremely enthusiastic about reading this. Initially, I thought it would be a book like Great Expectations. But my expectations were wrong. I did not think I would actually learn things. Surprisingly, it sparked motivation in me. I wanted to be more in touch with nature. It seemed like Henry David Thoreau had everything figured out. He was calm and thoughtful and he seemed to look at life in a different way. Being in solitude in nature must really get you in touch with your inner self. It allows you to look at your flaws and look at your talents. I was greatly intrigued by every page of Walden.
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.
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.