Thoreau Similes Essay

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In the first paragraph, Thoreau states that he wants to find a higher purpose to his life. He decides to live in the woods so that he can lead a simple life yet dig deeper into details that regular people overlook. He wants to absorb everything that life has to offer him.
Thoreau states, “I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary”. In this statement is is trying to distinguish between the life that he already has and the life that he wants in solitude away from civilization so that he has time to think through the deeper meaning of life.
The antithesis in the 1st paragraph is “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not live.” Here Threau is stating how if he did the opposite, he would regret the outcome. He would regret not going to the woods and not learning about life to his fullest.

Threau uses the word “dear” to mean the way that life should be lived. It should be lived to its fullest. “Mean” means that is life proves to be mean then he wants to witness the harshness of life first hand and share it to the world.
The similes in paragraph 5 compares humans to ants and pygmies in that our lives are full of details and are very busy but at the end of the day these actions really have no purpose to them. By having something to compare to, humans are able to relate better and understand the argument Thoreau is making about human lives.
Thoreau explains how humans believe that we are above nature and would not dare to give up our place in the hierarchy and behave like “lesser” creature...

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...means that even during extremes we should strive for a life without burden. This phrase helps to demonstrate the author’s argument that we should all find a common state where we are happy and that is not effected by outside factors.

The first metaphor is “Time is but the stream I go afishing in.” Through this metaphor he demonstrates his idea that time is “shallow”. Humans only look at how we never have enough time to do something but we fail to enjoy the stream or enjoy the time that we have. The second metaphor is “I have always been regretting that I was not as wise as the day I was born.” With this metaphor, he is trying to show how the time and days are more complicated than humans are. The past leaves us with so many unanswered questions but we cannot dwell on the past or worry about what is coming in the future. We just have to enjoy living in the present.

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