...Title: Thoreau and Emerson In today’s society each individual has the ability to thinks for themselves, but the inception of different ideas and thoughts has led to a population that’s dominated by the majority . We live in a society where a media, television and internet are the sources of manipulating a person’s mind. It also creates their mindset to determine how one think about themselves or and different view point on topic. In this particular essay I am going to be talking about two main people who had similar argument about how to be individual and not let government take control over your lives. Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau were most influential writers of their time. They both had encouraged and practice individualism and nonconformity. In Ralph Waldo Emerson essay “Self Reliance” and Henry David Thoreau essay “Resistance to Civil Government” both spoke about how to become individual and what improvements needed to be made in American society. Emerson’s writings focus more on the self part of humanism and independence from society. On the other hand, Thoreau focused on writing on matters of the self but tended to have more of a political overtone in his argument. They both wanted to attack the dominant religious, political and cultural values of American society in order to make people aware that the individual is more important than the government and society. Thoreau and Emerson tried to incorporate the idea of relying on others to determine...
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...Daynah Clements Mr. Bergeron Portable #3 Wednesday, May 6th, 2015 Walden Walden was written in first person about the events and ideas that came to Thoreau during his time living at Walden Pond in the eighteen hundreds. Walden is based on Thoreau’s journey at Walden Pond which was a sixty-two acre body of water a few miles from his parents' home in Concord, Massachusetts. He decided to build a cabin and live at Walden Pond for 2 years so he could show people that they only truly need 4 things in life which are food, shelter, clothing and fuel. He officially started this expedition in late March 1845 and left the Pond on September 6th 1847. Thoreau focused on many different themes, including the relationship between light and dark, the ideas and importance of nature, the meaning of progress, the importance of detail, and the relationship between the mind and body. While being at Walden Thoreau developed many philosophical ideas concerning knowing yourself, living simply and deliberately, and seeking truth. He was a poet and a philosopher who lived a life of simplicity in order to make a direct connection between people, God, and nature. I could adapt to Thoreau’s philosophy to an extent. There are somethings I like about his novel Walden like; not wanting to go with society, being your own person, finding yourself, living life to its fullest, seeing that everything is a want not a need etc… I wondered throughout the whole book if he left and at the end I got my answer...
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...although sometimes, the government of a nation passes civil laws that are considerably “unjust”. While facing injustice on the own hands of its government, it is not difficult for somebody to speak out against it. Henry David Thoreau and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. both did that, both of them are brave enough to follow their hearts and conscience to fight the unjust system that their government implements; and because of this both men face the consequences of jail time for disobeying certain civil laws. Thoreau in his piece “Civil Disobedience” he discusses the notion that a society must overcome the strong “hold of government to realize their own principles and morals, and not follow the conscience of government. King on the other hand wrote “Letter from Birmingham Jail” which criticizes the injustice brought to black community in a period of racial segregation and unfair treatments of blacks throughout the nation. Although both men wrote essays in which they denounce certain aspects of social injustice, Thoreau’s style focus on individualism, as he protest alone against slavery and injustice during Mexican war; King meanwhile, encouraged its community to unify against racial segregation in order to break the bonds of racial discrimination. Although Thoreau lived more than 100 years before the time of King, Thoreau’s thinking remained influential and inspirational for King. King’s letter corresponds with Thoreau’s feelings against the American government in that both men disagree...
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...Emerson and Thoreau In Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay Self Reliance and David Henry Thoreau’s essays Civil Disobedience, Walking, and Life Without Purpose the two writers seem to have about the same message. Both of them talk about why people need to think for themselves and not try to be like everyone else. Emerson shows how famous people like Jesus, Socrates, and Galileo were different and because of it they did great things. He ends by saying “to be great is to be misunderstood.” I agree with this because people who try to be just like everyone else or try to fit in because they care too much about what other people think of them aren’t usually very successful. Emerson also has another quote saying “it is easy in the world to live after the world’s opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.” I really like this quote because it shows the importance of sticking to what you believe in and not falling under peer pressure, something I pride myself on. In Walking, Thoreau talks about nature and how people need time to be alone so they can clear their minds. This essay is kind of like Nature by Emerson because both talk about needing to be away from society and alone in nature. Thoreau makes many points about the government in his essay Civil Disobedience. He talks about how the government is “best which governs least” or not at all. Thoreau talks about how...
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...November 29, 2014 A Thoreau Examination of Materialism In Walden, Thoreau admonishes society for succumbing to material desires and forsaking greater, more worthy pursuits like knowledge and self-reliance; similarly, in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Dick creates a world where dependence on material possessions causes society to sacrifice its humanity and ultimately creates irreversible ruin. Yet both authors acknowledge that material items are important, with Thoreau depending on things like his house and his field for survival, and Dick introducing pet animals and empathy boxes as possessions that heighten human experience rather than suppress it. Thoreau and Dick argue that material possessions themselves have the potential to make powerful and positive impacts. It is the unchecked desire for material possessions that leads to societal decline and unhappiness. Throughout Walden, Thoreau is largely critical of materialism, venturing into the solitude of Walden Pond for two years partly to escape society’s preoccupation with material possessions. In the beginning of “Economy,” he observes young townsmen strapped with large inheritances and comments that having a massive farm, which is typically perceived as a sign of prosperity, only creates obligations and forces its inhabitants to spend their entire lives toiling, whereas owning a meager plot of land both allows for self-sufficiency and provides time to explore other opportunities. Thoreau uses the example of the...
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...Thoreau strongly argues how the government is preventing positive change in addition to creating a new future government with better regulations. The strong use of diction emphasises his point along with his scholarly and persuasive tone. Provided Thoreau utilizes strong diction implementing advanced vocabulary to emphasize his argument strongly. In addition,Thoreau applies vocabulary such as "expedient","worthy", and "fain" to describe the government and the men who are part of the government. Creating a more formal tone. By utilizing a strong diction it supports his argument since he is addressing the government it provides a stronger argument because it provides us with a precision of how highly educated he is. Furthermore,his tone...
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...While analysis Leopold and Thoreau are that they both have the same conservation the environment. They come from different area and different job, but the both are nature lover. They to leaves the wealthiest toward sufficiency. For Leopold, he has being fulfill to love the environment or the nature from his family. He have been played with the nature since young age to fulfill as part of his life. Thoreau runs a way to fine the true meaning of life. Lucky, he successful with this wish and get more toward the meaning of the nature. The similarity of the Leopold and Thoreau is they are nature lover. They are protect environment as long as it can take for the new generation to use. Leopold wants people "human being" to respect this land and behaves...
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...Chris McCandless, and Henry David Thoreau embrace the 19th century philosophy of transcendentalism. After reading Into the Wild by Krakauer and Thoreau’s excerpts from Walden readers start to see similarities between McCandless and Thoreau though the transcendentalism theme of nature and social reforms. One of the first transcendentalism beliefs the McCandless follows is nature. For example, McCandless does not always take the easy paths. McCandless says “All hope collapse! The canal does not reach the ocean, but merely peters out into a vast swamp’’ (McCandless 35). McCandless wants new ideas, places, people, and experiences in his life. He does not want the same life every day. McCandless wants to get out of his confront zone and in the world. This directly relates to the idea of Thoreau. In Walden, Thoreau says, “I did not wish to take the cabin passage, but rather to go before the mast and on the deck of the world” (Thoreau). What Thoreau is saying in the quote above is he rather go take a grown up trail nobody has been through in a while than a well know hiking trail, he wants to get out into nature and see what life has in store just like McCandless. In the two quotes quoted above both men in each of the quotes they both wanted the same thing to get out into nature and experience the wildest adventures, not...
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...Henry Thoreau and Frederick Porcher both felt America was not heading in the right direction. However, they had different reasons for suggesting this. Thoreau thought slavery and those who ignored it were the problem while Porcher thought the conflict between capital and labor was the problem. Thoreau believed that government ignorance was the reason slavery still existed and Porcher believed that capitalism was the cause of the conflict between capital and labor. They each wrote of possible remedies to fix America from heading down a road from which it would never return. Henry Thoreau considered slavery and ignorance what was wrong with the United States. He believed slavery was immoral and the activism of John Brown at Harper’s Ferry...
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...People should fight for what they want instead of waiting for it to magically appear in front of you. But always keeping in mind the limitations in ding so. Although David Henry Thoreau had a similar view on how to perceive the law, he wanted people to resist in justice. Thoreau ideals included, one must disobey the law in order to protest and disobedience have personal sacrifice. When an individual fight for what they want they usually do it with precaution and accordingly with the law. Thoreau wanted people to instead to go against the law to get what they wanted. Individuals need to break the law in order for them to protest. Risks came with this such as getting arrested and going to jail. But many people did so in order for them to get...
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...Paper 2 - Thoreau on Work, Debt, and Slavery For this paper, I chose to focus on subject 7 of the syllabus which was Thoreau on Work, Debt, and Slavery. The first chapter of Walden, Thoreau states that his neighbors seem to work their lives away and are deeply in debt. Readers have come to read Thoreau’s book on stolen or borrowed time, robbing their employers of time. Readers are also imposing slavery upon themselves. These three claims relate to one another in the mode of economy. In order to acquire the necessities of life, man must work to make a living. In order to make a living, man must have money to acquire tools in order to make that living. If man does not have the means in which to acquire tools, he himself becomes the tool of production via labor power. Men who constantly work in order to produce these necessities daily are slaves to themselves and to those who employ them. One without the other leaves man without life’s necessities; thus, leading to his demise. In Walden, Thoreau claims: . . . my townsmen, whose misfortune it is to have inherited farms, houses, barns, and cattle . . . Better if they had been born in the open pasture . . . might have seen with clearer eyes what field they were called to labor in (8). Castro 2 In this passage, Thoreau clearly provides an example of how man works his life away. The inherited land given to the new “serf of the soil” must be constantly worked and tilled to produce crops for consumption and for sale. Thoreau argues...
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...Viewing Thoreau through the eyes of Wordsworth There are times when reading an essay that it is confusing to understand what the author is trying to purvey. Later, gaining more knowledge of the subject through other authors, it is easier to see what previous authors that have been read where trying to say. Looking at Henry David Thoreau’s “Solitude” after reading William Wordsworth’s “The World is Too Much with Us” brought clarity to many aspects of Thoreau’s essay. Wordsworth’s poem brought clarity to what Thoreau believed some people are missing or closing themselves off to when they sever their ties to the natural world, the bond that Thoreau himself has with nature and why it seems he has found happiness. There are many aspects of nature that many people miss that both Thoreau and Wordsworth see. When Wordsworth speaks of “getting and spending, we lay waste our powers; / little we see in nature that is ours” (356), it clarifies a conversation Thoreau has within his essay with one of his “townsmen, who has accumulated what is called a handsome property” (50). The conversation that Thoreau has with this townsman leads the man to asking Thoreau how he could “give up so many of the comforts of life” (50). When Wordsworth’s quote is applied, it helps to illuminate the point that many people are so busy trying to gain material possessions that they can no longer see simple beauty in nature; everything has to have a monetary value to make it worthwhile for many people to pursue...
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...A maxim is a short statement that expresses a universal truth about human beings. In Ralph Waldo Emerson's well known maxim "Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind," he is expressing the idea that one should not succumb to society's pressures and should work to expand their mind in their own way. This maxim holds true to today's society and many people believe in this theme of self-preservation. The play "The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail" by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee embodies and represents this theme well with the main character Henry David Thoreau. In the first act of the play in an argument between Henry and the Deacon Ball, Henry exercises this idea that nothing is of higher importance than the growth and ideas...
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...and Thoreau’s key theme in their writings was to help one reconnect with nature and gain a simpler understanding of life. For instance, Henry David Thoreau experiments the transcendentalist beliefs about nature by living at Walden Woods in a small cabin on Emerson's property. Here Thoreau discovered the simplicity in nature and the exposure it brings to our mind. Both Emerson and Thoreau believe that nature is what imposes us not to rely on others' ideas but to establish our own. Nature is always changing so we must keep seeking for the meaning of human life. Thoreau wanted to live a simple life, in order to find a deeper meaning of human existence. He writes, "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...
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...Comparative Essay Ginsberg, Hughes and Thoreau Confidence and self-reliance are qualities that are admired and desired by many people. Confidence is defined as a feeling or consciousness of one's powers or of reliance on one's circumstances, and a faith or belief that one will act in a right, proper, or effective way. Self-reliance is defined as the ability to care for one's self. Because people aspire to be confident and self-reliant, these qualities are common themes in literature. This essay compares three quotes, taken from three very different pieces of literature about American values, in which confidence and self-reliance are illustrated. “I refuse to give up my obsession. America, stop pushing. I know what I’m doing.” – Allen Ginsberg, “America.” Allen Ginsberg’s “America” presents a sharp criticism of American culture by someone who has almost completely rejected its values. The poem’s speaker addresses America directly, as if he were giving a lecture or a sermon to the nation itself instead of to the American people. The nation’s aggressive anticommunist foreign policy and its culture of materialism and conformity are the targets of the speaker’s criticism. This poem was written in 1956 and was one of the first widely read literary statements of political unrest in the post-World War II America. Themes from the recent wars are prominent such as the nuclear bomb or Asian foreign policy, but the poem also depicts national racial unrest...
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