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Analyzing The Maxim 'The Night Thoreau Spent In Jail'

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How does the maxim "Nothing is at last sacred but the integrety of you own mind" by Emerson relate to The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail? First of all, this quote is says that nothing can help you but your mind. If you have the knowledge than you shouldn't be afraid to speak out and follow your own path instead of conforming to what society thinks and believes. Only you can have the strength to reach your full potential and doing what you believe is right. This quote reminds me of Thoreau, of how he never conformed to what society believes. Thoreau went to Walden for the purpose of strengthening his own mind and following his own beliefs. Why should you do what everyone tells you? Well you should not because you are yourself and not society which …show more content…

I think that the man was doing the right thing by going out and following his owns ways. The teacher could have been wrong and by listening to the teacher he has conformed to society and what they think instead of thinking about his own ideas and how he really feels about the topic. This would lead them all into the wrong path. If you keep doing the wrong thing you can never reach the peak in knowledge ,which is supposed to help a person strive to be unique and break out from that bubble of conformity. Why should people always the the same thing instead of keeping an open mind and expressing how they feel not how everyone feels and that topic? Henry wanting to teach his students and show them how to express their ideas was derived from his path because Deacon ball refused to let him teach his own ways and forced the students to learn from books which the institution passed out. The maxim " An institution is the lengthened shadow of a man" by Emerson is similar to this example and the original quote since the books start out by conforming to an "institution" but Thoreau wanted to break free of the conformity and ventured out to seek the " integrity" of his own mind and developed a new path, that is the path of

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While Thoreau’s admiration for the true human spirit and self-reliance is admirable it is also problematic because it is from a privileged viewpoint. Thoreau is also a hyper intelligent, able-bodied man in the early 19th century. And Fredrick Douglass might also represent a privileged viewpoint because he was able to recognize forms of the system that was constructed around him because of his hyper intelligence. While reading and exploring thought elevated his self-reliance and independence it was his own personal intelligence and determination to be able to dismantle his social barriers. While I do not believe Douglass is the only slave to push back on his physical and mental bondage, it can be assumed that it was not the norm of American Slavery because then slavery might

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In Walden and Resistance to Civil Government, Henry David Thoreau the author, uses the rhetorical strategies of personification, metaphor, and allusion/symbolism in the chapter “Conclusion” to describe what he learned from his experiment of living in Walden Pond. Thoreau’s main message of what he learned is to be undefined by what’s in front. Without the limits of conformity, humans have the capacity to achieve much greater and beautiful dreams and goals. Conformity is the boundary that doesn’t let individuals reach their great potential. Thoreau uses effective personification to imply the significance of following one’s dreams confidently.

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Emerson and Thoreau are two very different people; however, they have very similar ideas and thoughts. They both want you to take the time and reflects your own thoughts. In addition to that, they want you to question your own thoughts. There are people who will always tell you what you should do, There were people who told Emerson and Thoreau what to do. They denied everything everyone said.

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In Self Reliance, Emerson writes “It loves not realities and creators, but names and customs,” explaining that through his eyes, society cares not about an individual’s ego and prosperity but instead the individual himself. Society is focused on names and customs alike as they are all unique to each person. The similarities are evident in Thoreau’s Walden as well. Thoreau views liberty as all animals roaming the forest and while all the animals are different, they are all treated the same in the eyes of nature. Ideals of liberty are closely compared between the two authors - their common viewpoint on the matter is that you are your own individual and you are free to do whatever you would like as society/natures view of you will never change.

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