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Rhetorical Analysis Essay On Where I Lived And What I Live For

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Henry David Thoreau was a philosopher, poet, and a very outspoken person about society. He discusses his opinions on how people should live in his essay “Where I Lived and What I Lived For.” Thoreau's philosophy of simplicity and individualism and self-sufficiency poses many dangers for communities as a whole. Although there are many setbacks, his philosophy is, however, still viable today. Thoreau strongly advocates self-sufficiency and individualism in this essay. He urges people to live simply and warns against the difference between “essentials” and just extra “stuff.” As he says, “Our life is frittered away by detail.” We focus so much on the future and all the silly distractions going on around us, that we lose sight of what is really important. He believed we don’t need as much technology, for example. Also, we could live off of one meal a day instead of three or four. Thoreau had the ability to isolate himself whenever he wished. He urges us to do the same. Thoreau’s philosophy may seem great, but it poses many threats in jeopardizing communities. For example, it could negatively impact economies. If people don’t go out, and they stay home as Thoreau proposes, businesses will suffer. Jobs will be taken away because there won’t be enough people to carry them out. Individuals who …show more content…

A lot of loneliness would be coursing through the communities; there would be no sense of unity between people. Less and less people would travel. Less people would experience other cultures. There would be a limited sharing of knowledge and ideas, and everyone would be left to their own devices. Thoreau says, “...I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life…” This is a great ideology, but sometimes only the essentials aren’t what make life worthwhile; traveling, socializing with people of similar or different interests, laughing, and crying

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Thoreau starts his essay by condemning his fellow countrymen’s actions, or rather, inaction. They and Thoreau share similar moral beliefs, but they refuse to take any action towards them. “Must the citizen ever for a moment, or

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However, I also agree with Thoreau’s statement in the

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1) Thoreau is a quite unusual guy that wants to be isolated from civilization/human society due to the reasons that he believes should be obtained by every civilian. Thoreau wants to move to a place away from people but a place where there is nature around. Wild nature that isn’t touched by humans and that they would make. Thoreau wants to leave human society because he believes that there is something wrong with civilization for him. He believes that the world is moving too fast, and technology is growing faster.

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Thoreau's mother describes him as “[a]lways [doing] the right thing, [e]ven if it’s wrong” (94). Collectively, direct and indirect characterization through these quotes clearly indicate how Thoreau seeks to make every decision based upon his own personal beliefs of its morality, independent from societal pressure, and to act upon it

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Henry David Thoreau, an American poet, has published works that have questioned what it means to be "normal" in society. He has taught readers to go out and question what their reality is. In one particular text, Thoreau begs questions that--to this day--people question. In Civil Disobedience, by Henry David Thoreau, he uses words to inspire people even to this day.

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Again, the author solidifies his point of the limited extent of the government as an active entity within the country. Although this piece was written over a century ago, it is still understandable to modern society because of Thoreau’s ability to clearly convey his ideas through

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Mr. Thoreau argues that people should not allow any government to control or atrophy their thoughts or beliefs. Mr. Thoreau was an also remained a devoted abolitionist and has written

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Walden Henry David Thoreau was a transcendentalist who attempted to acquire the truth and meaning in simplicity and live in harmony with nature and his conscience. In order to accomplish that, he lived two years in Walden’s Pond in Concord, Massachusetts; being away from the daily concerns, issues, and society. Clearly, Thoreau wasn’t considered a hermit since he received visitors, but nonetheless, he managed to live away from society. To reply to people’s speculations, Thoreau wrote Walden when he lived in Walden’s Pond. Thoreau pursued the true meaning of life and reality in a complex world by living in simplicity.

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Wisdom, Walden, and Withdrawal “...if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours,”( Thoreau 625). Henry David Thoreau shares his journey and experiences throughout Walden. Thoreau speaks greatly about the elements of self reliance and achieving goals. Several of Thoreau's lessons are still relevant in today's society, two of his fundamental ideas are that wisdom does not come from education and that loneliness is not the same thing as being alone.

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This highlights how unrealistic it is to live the successful self-reliant life that Thoreau was trying to encourage. In addition, despite how romantic Thoreau’s “solitude” sounds, in reality, living life isolated from society is incredibly lonely. When Christopher McCandless tried to incorporate the value of self-reliance into his life by taking an adventure to Alaska alone, he was left feeling incredibly lonely. At the end of his journey, he realized the flaws of this lifestyle. McCandless writes, “happiness only real when shared” (Penn).

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This can be proven by how Thoreau heavily opposed slavery, how he was able to move into the Woods to start his journey, and lastly how he deeply opposed to the Mexican-American war that he went on strike and decided not to pay war taxes. These actions based on Emerson’s definition on Self-Reliance would well describe Thoreau way of life. Thoreau’s idea on Civil Disobedience was that there is a need to prioritize one’s conscience over the dictates of laws. To criticizes American social institutions and policies, but importantly the slavery and the Mexican-American war. In the beginning Thoreau goes on about how he disapproves about

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Purely in terms of common sense and logic, I do not believe that a society can be created solely based on the ideals that Thoreau has stated in his essay. Thoreau claims that one has not only a right, but a duty to disobey the government if one doesn’t believe in its system of rule. Although I agree with his statements, I cannot see past that action of rebellion. What would happen after the people unite to stop recognizing said government?

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Henry David Thoreau is one of the primary promoters of the transcendentalist movement and has been inspiring people to take on the transcendentalist lifestyle ever since the mid 1800’s. Mccandless was an admirer of Henry’s philosophy but he wasn’t as fully immersed in his work and ideals as Thoreau was to his own. His intentions were not as closely aligned to the movement as Thoreau’s and the difference between these icons are clearly visible. Self reliance is one of the most significant components of the transcendentalism movement that Henry David Thoreau contributed to in his literary career. “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 lived.” - (taken from Henry David Thoreau’s “Walden”).

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In Henry David Thoreau memoir, Walden , chapter two, Where I Lived, and What I Lived For ,Thoreau explains why, “ I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life.” Thoreau uses the appeal of pathos to display to the audience his declaration of living simplistic all the way cut down to the necessities with figurative language and syntactical choices. Thoreau breaks down this chapter into two sections where he lived and what he lives for, as the name of the chapters. In Where I Lived, starting off on the first line, “AT A CERTAIN season of our life we are accustomed to consider every spot as the possible site of a house, ” Thoreau uses a paradox, and irony, to state when one is looking for a house, one considers every possible land space to build/buy a house; now it might not seem true, but when you’re looking for a place to live, one does take into account every available property. Ironically, Thoreau himself, is looking for a house and has, “...surveyed the country on every side within a dozen miles.”

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In Walden, written by Henry David Thoreau, the author expresses the immense longing that we, as human beings, need to give up our connection to our ever-growing materialism in order to revert back to self-sufficient happiness. In Walden, the reader is able to infer that Thoreau feels as if we are becoming enslaved by our material possessions, as well as believes that the study of nature should replace and oppose our enslavement, and that we are to “open new channels of thought” by turning our eyes inward and studying ourselves. Thoreau feels that we are becoming enslaved by our material possessions. As stated in the chapter “In the Where I Lived, and What I Lived For”, Thoreau states that “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 lived.” (972).

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