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Cannery Row Walden Analysis

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In Cannery Row by John Steinbeck and Walden by Henry David Thoreau, the key idea of morals and self-reflection leads to an understanding that only through the individual is society able to be improved. The reason for this is because people have huge influences on what course society takes. Doc in Cannery Row starts to talk about Mack and the boys to a companion. The reason he is doing this is that he spots Mack and the boys sitting and not paying attention to a parade. Doc says “for there are two possible reactions to social ostracism-either a man emerges determined to be better, purer, and kindlier or he goes bad, challenges the world and does even worse things. This last is by far the commonest reaction to stigma” (pg. 128). The tool …show more content…

But, wherever a man goes, men will pursue and paw him with their dirty institutions, and, if they can, constrain him to belong to their desperate odd-fellow society” (pg.156). The tool in the quote is figurative language but more specifically it is a metaphor. The metaphor is comparing men to animals by stating, “Wherever a man goes, men will pursue and paw him”. It is treating the men like the predators on the other individuals being chased like prey. The effect of the metaphor is that it shows how individuals are able to influence others and in turn society. Through the quote these men are trying to aggressively get people to join what they view an “odd-fellow society.” By convincing other people a society can be formed by the image and goal of the people who seek individuals. Sometimes though it is used in a negative way and it feels that the masses are prey to the people who seek a society that resembles their image. After Thoreau leaves his cabin after a few years, he reflects on his findings. One of the things he states is that “our whole life is startlingly moral. There is never an instant’s truce between virtue and vice. Goodness is the only investment that never fails” (Pg. 218). The tool in the quote is figurative language but more specifically it is a

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