The sun has barely risen; its majestic reds, yellows, and oranges just begin to illuminate the sky. And yet all someone hears is her alarm’s blaring noise, her artificial light blinding her from even taking note of the wonder outside. She has been so consumed in what David Foster Wallace described as the monotony of “day in and day out, ”, concerned by every beep, every noise, and every distraction, so concerned about the next action and its consequences to even notice there is a larger world. Even a century-and-a-half ago, during the dawn of the industrial era, Henry David Thoreau noticed people’s consumption in this fast paced life, where every decision is overly analyzed and no time is left for wandering thoughts. Through metaphors, similes, anaphoras, and hortative constructions, Thoreau is able to call upon his audience to take a step back from the monotony of life and see …show more content…
the world as it is. Thoreau introduces the passage through the hortative construction of the phrase “Let us.” He addresses his readers, “us, ”, directly, and recognizes each one of us, including himself, is too consumed by the modern monotonous style of life to even notice the world literally surrounding us.
He knows this is a widespread problem, yet he is able to provide a simple solution: to “spend one day as deliberately as nature.” Thoreau suggests the escape from the world need not be longer than one day. One day, he says, would be long enough to bring about change. It wouldn’t take a year, a lifetime, or a generation; just one day. Just one day when we don’t analyze life down to every little decision. His paradoxical simile to the deliberateness of nature seems nonsensical at first; Nature has no deliberateness, Nature just does. It is as it is. Thoreau wants us to act without intention in every action for once. We can’t be thrown off the metaphorical train-tracks by something as small as a “nutshell” or “every mosquito's wing.” Thoreau suggests we spend one day like that. One day we spend just
existing. Thoreau doesn’t believe we should drag ourselves out of bed each morning, dreading the day ahead. In another hortative phrase he urges us to “let us rise early and fast, or break fast.” We should get up every day excited to greet the world; not dreading it. This anaphora of “let” creates the sense of collective urgency and necessity; this cannot wait, the world has gone unnoticed for way too long. Something must be done now. We must break from the fast pace of society, hence the phrase “break fast,” which is also a play on the word ‘breakfast.’ It is critically important this is first thing we must do when wake up: break from the fast and embrace some slowness. If we can do all this, we will hit the truth, the “hard bottom.” Once we get through the metaphorical “mud and slush,” the not-so-important parts of society, we’ll realize what’s truly important. Everything will fall into place and become clear. We will have a chance to start over. We will have escaped this modern monotonous style of life and come to a mindset Thoreau calls “reality.” This is why Thoreau capitalizes “This is” in the middle of the mammoth sentence in the middle of the passage. If we spend this one day as he suggests, society will realize what is actually essential and start from a new “point d’appui,” a starting point. Society can start all over again. It can realize what it means to be “alive,” to have an awareness of the world and not be caught in the metaphorical “rapids” of society. Thoreau argues that ultimately we “crave...reality” no matter what. This is how Thoreau believes we will realize what reality truly is, what we “craved” all along. No longer will we have to suffer in our “dying” but we will be “alive” and finally able to carry on with “our business” contently and calmly. We will finally have escaped the distractedness of society and become active members of the world. Thoreau argues in this selection from Walden, society has become too consumed with its own distractions to even notice the world surrounding it. We begin to think we are more part of a society than a part of the world. Thoreau urges us to spend as little as a mere day away from society, consumed in the natural rhythms of the world; then we’ll realize what truly is reality and what we should value. Life will become a part of the world, not part of a society. Life will no longer have to be so monotonous. Not every decision will analyzed to the point where it is ridiculous. Just one day, and we will be able to reclaim the natural flow of the world.
Thoreau, among the most heralded writers of the North American continent, may have lived on his little as possible, but the grandeur of his writing style suggest quite the opposite. This does coincide with a key part of Transcendentalism - putting matters of the mind and spirit far above any materialistic preference. Chapter 5 of Thoreau’s memoir Walden explains his reasonings for isolation through several rhetorical strategies that emphasize the splendor of aloneness and nature.
Thoreau conveys many points in his writing and a large recurring one is the state of society. As stated before, he believed that people are too focused on physical gain and modernization which leads them into desperation. He adds on to this belief later in the book asking that above all else whether it be money or fame he be given honesty (Thoreau 246). To Thoreau, the truth is more important than anything measurable in status. Thoreau believes that a minimalist lifestyle is a good lifestyle, similar to Mccandless. He speaks of how it is good that he can put all of his belonging in one pile in his yard because it removes the clutter from his life (Thoreau 85). He also says that his best quality in life is to want very little, because it keeps himself true to himself and keeps him from distraction. Thoreau also believes that every man should be one in himself not oppressed by the government. He says that everyone should be able to be themselves whether is is in accord with the government or not (Thoreau 240). He is essentially saying that the government should not be a part of people's life decisions only to maintain the
Chris McCandless does not wish to follow defined life structure that society enforces to simply be alive, instead, he chooses to take a seek a path to live a life with purpose. Such an eagerness to seek detachment from what is expected by society, is enforced by not only McCandless but also Thoreau. A primary factor resembling this, is McCandless’ view that many people “live within unhappy circumstances...yet will not change…they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism...damaging to the adventurous spirit(40).” The detesting tone risen through the confliction of “unhappy circumstances” and “damage,” to “safety, conformity and conservation,” emphasis his will to separate from a lifestyle lacking change. This is done
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;
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.
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
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 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.
Thoreau writes that "the greater part will be meadow and forest, not only serving an immediate use, but preparing a mould against a distant future, by the annual decay of the vegetation which it supports." Man needs "wild and dusky knowledge" more than lettered learning. Thoreau undercuts the notion of "Useful Knowledge," which may preclude higher understanding, preferring instead "Useful Ignorance" or "Beautiful Knowledge." His own desire for knowledge is intermittent, but his "desire to bathe my head in atmospheres unknown to my feet is perennial and constant." He encourages not the seeking of knowledge per se but rather of "Sympathy with Intellect." Our understanding cannot encompass the magnitude of nature and the universal. Thoreau writes that in his own relationship with nature he lives "a sort of border life, on the confines of a world into which I make occasional and transient forays only." Even Thoreau–a man who has devoted his life to higher pursuit–cannot grasp the full meaning of nature. When we are successful in beginning to approach the universal through our experience of nature, our glimpses of understanding are fleeting and evanescent. Imperfect though our comprehension is, however, we must elevate, must seek those places that offer broader perspective. Thoreau employs the image of the rooster–crowing confidently to inspire others to alertness and awareness, expressing the "health and soundness of
Henry David Thoreau was bon on July 12, 1817 in Concord, Massachusetts, on his grandmother’s farm. Thoreau was of French-Huguenot and Scottish-Quaker decent. Thoreau was interested in writing at an early age. At the age of ten he wrote his first essay “The seasons”. He attended Concord Academy until 1833 when he was accepted to Harvard University but with his pending financial situation he was forced to attend Cambridge in August of 1833. In September of 1833 with the help of his family he was able to attend Harvard University. He graduated college in August of 1837.
Have you ever woke up in the morning and asked yourself, “Why am I living this life?” Throughout the book of Walden, Henry David Thoreau questions the lifestyles that people choose; he makes his readers wonder if they have chosen the kind of lifestyle that give them the greatest amount of happiness. Thoreau stated, “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().” This quote is important because most of society these days are so caught up in work and trying to make ends meet that they lose the values in life. Thoreau was forced to change his life when he found himself unhappy after a purchase for a farm fell through. On Thoreau’s journey he moves to Walden and builds a house and life from nothing but hard work, symbolizes many different objects.
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.
The excerpt from Henry David Thoreau’s book Walden takes us through Thoreau’s extended mystical experience as he attempts to discover how to live with the guidance and observance of Nature. In this excerpt he cherishes Nature and its elements. Thoreau’s primary motive behind moving to the woods near Walden Pond is to understand what it is to live. To him Nature sort of sets out a path to the comprehension of life. On this “path” created by Nature, one is taught to be simple so that there will be minimal complication present. He also paints Nature as a gentle entity, saying that it is both innocent and beneficial. Thoreau depicts Nature as not only a guide to learning how to live but also an active example of what living should be like.
Everyone needs a break once in a while. The day-to-day grind can wear a person down and leave them tired, anxious and even depressed. We enjoy escaping to the beach for some relaxation or taking a walk in the woods for some fresh air. When we are outside, we get a moment to disconnect ourselves from our busy schedules and reconnect with Nature, if only for a moment. For most, a week long camping trip could be the highlight of the year, but what if instead of a week you were able to enjoy the great outdoors for a month. How about a year, or two? Well Henry David Thoreau did just that. He spent two years, two months and two days in the woods to try a simpler way of living to understand society’s relationship with Nature. Fortunately Thoreau was a very skilled writer and published the accounts of his social vacation in his book “Walden”. Thoreau’s quest of a better understanding of society enabled him to live simply by becoming self-reliant, while garnering an appreciation of Man’s connection to Nature. In this essay, I will outline three quotes from “Walden” that I feel embody Thoreau...