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Emerson and thoreau
Comparison of emerson and thoreau
Comparison of emerson and thoreau
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More handpicked essays just for you.
Emerson and thoreau
Comparison of emerson and thoreau
Comparison of emerson and thoreau
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
There are similarities between Chris McCandless and Henry David Thoreau, but there is also many differences. Chris and David’s thoughts on the following ideas are just some of the many similarities they have: transcendentalism, materialism, individualism, and nature. One difference between McCandless and Thoreau is that Thoreau studied and enjoyed technology, while McCandless did not. The two characters may have extensive similarities, but their differences characterize their personalities.
Henry David Thoreau uses Metaphor to develop the theme. Thoreau states "... not to be thrown off the track by every nutshell and mosquito's wing that falls on the rails. " Therefore he says that because people tend to stop reaching for opportunities just for one simple mistake. Take that and help yourself be better for the next opportunity. It demonstrates that when you are living your life, there will be bumps.
I do not agree with Thoreau’s ideas of solitude, he speaks as if friends and family were nothing more than just objects in a person’s life. This essay reflects Thoreau’s lack of social interaction. Life is hard and sometimes companions are
Thoreau lived by his ideas, but the two that correlate to Chris the most are Individualism and Nature. Chris shows a lot of involvement in individualism during his life. Chris explained, “We like companionship, but we can't stand people for very long” (PG 96). Chris explained how he is a very individualistic person and enjoys living by himself, especially in nature. Chris describes himself all throughout the book, but nothing shows more than his individuality traits.
At this point in the narrative he tells readers about an experience he had while observing a woodchuck in the woods while on a walk. He then tells in detail how he wanted to eat this woodchuck in a brutal way. This thought process he was having while observing this animal brought him a better understanding that human beings still have a wild instinct inside of themselves. Which he respected the idea and acknowledged that these instincts still occurred within himself. This experience supported Thoreau belief that hunting/obtaining knowledge on nature was important at an early age.
Fredrick Douglas and Henry David Thoreau have the same ideas yet different experiences which shine through their writings. The main idea is that I would have had no idea that Thoreau was an abolitionist from this writing alone. This excerpt from Thoreau is extremely philosophical, as were most of his other writings, and could only loosely be applied to the issue of slavery while Douglas’ writing was strictly an autobiography. This simple difference goes a long way in highlighting their differences as rights activists. Douglas is direct and evokes change through his actions and words while Thoreau is indirect, yet he makes you think about your decisions and how they affect the world around you.
In reading Henry David Thoreau, I was halted by the views he shared. Thoreau was a suspicious man that felt there is not a reason to be taxed if person did not agree with usage of funds or need government protection. Thoreau lived in the woods, mostly self sustainable. He came into town to have a shoe mended and found himself confronted by a city official to pay a poll tax. He refused and the sheriff put him in Jail.
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.
Thoreau got everything he wished for and became one of the most peaceful writers. No matter where the authors stood they both ended their careers in pretty good conditions and with a great
Transcendentalist writers were focused on the belief of the divinity of the individual soul, the inner voice, (Crawford, Kern & Needleman, 1961) to overcome social stereotypes and to avoid conformity. It is highlighted the importance to return to nature to enhance the quality of humans beings by living simply since being apart of common social rules is the only way to be in communion with nature’s wisdom. Those transcendental characteristics could be seen in Emerson’s ¨self-reliance¨ or Thoreau’s ¨Walden ¨ bearing in mind that although, Emerson’s ¨Self-reliance¨ adheres more descriptive examples to illustrate metaphors and Thoreau’s ¨Where I lived and what I lived for¨ introduces metaphors creating much more imagery, both make a critique of the modern individual using
Alexander Karaivanov Mrs. Jackson Period 5 4/10/24 The Good in Human Nature Evil, “profoundly immoral and wicked” is a word that could describe the human nature of the boys that Goldwing illustrates in his novel Lord of the Flies throughout the actions he writes (Oxford Dictionary). Alternatively, contradicting Goldwing's view, human nature is more positive and innocent than evil. Despite the illustration that Golding depicts of human nature being wicked, it can be seen that humans are more good than evil because human nature is the natural behavioral traits that a person possesses, causing there to be an internal innocence. Within the novel Lord of the Flies, written by Golding, he constructs an idea where human nature is inclined toward
Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau both fond nature to be essential to being a whole person: spiritually and emotionally. Emerson saw nature’s effect on people and their thoughts, whereas Thoreau saw the deliberateness of nature and thought that if people could seize the same decisiveness that they would have more to enjoy in life. Both authors believed that humans needed to enjoy nature to be one with the universal being that is the basis of Transcendentalism. Emerson wrote “When we speak of nature in this manner, we have a distinct but most poetical sense in the mind.” (Nature 693) Emerson was saying that nature is similar to poetry for the mind, in that it is relaxing and wholesome.
Things can be seen different in many perspectives. It can be interpreted in ways others can’t see. But in order to regulate and adjust our lives, to show the meaning of what we see, we need the solitude to consolidate our thoughts and see things that were hidden in the first place. In “Nature,” Ralph Waldo Emerson applies rhetorical strategies for instance the imagery of unity and the allusion of God to experience the nature in solitude. Emerson starts off his piece with imagery of the unity between man and nature.
He does not disdain human companionship; in fact he values it when it comes on his own terms, as when his philosopher or poet friends come to call. Thoreau calls for people to be givers rather than takers in the economic game of life by “living deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life” (410). Thoreau claims that by reducing the unnecessary excess in our life, one can then contribute to society and give more than they take. Thoreau suggests on how to embark upon how to reduce the unnecessary items in our life by “[letting our] affairs be two or three, [and] instead of three meals a day, [eat] but one” (410). Thoreau also introduces the concept that self-reliance can be spiritual as well as economic, and explores the higher dimensions of individualism.
“It’s not that we use technology, we live technology.” This quotation means that our generation today is more dependent in technology; some of us cannot live without these technologies even though technology is just our “wants” but they made it as their “needs”. Technology can make any work easy and fast that’s why most people prefer using it than doing manual work. A Smart Phone is one of the many examples of technology that most of the people use today, Smart Phone is a mobile phone that performs many of the functions of a computer, typically having a touch screen interface, internet access, and an operating system capable of running downloaded applications (“Smartphone.” Oxford Dictionaries, Oxford University Press) and also a Laptop which is defined to be a