Thoreau's Use Of Compare And Contrast Children

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Thoreau’s use of compare and contrast in his text has an extraordinary impact. Thoreau compares and contrast children “who play life, discern its true law and relations more clearly” to men “who fail to live it worthily, but who think that they are wiser by experience, that is, by failure”. Children understand the meaning of actually living, thus allowing them to be content with life. Adults on the other hand don’t actually live life but seem to have the delusion of living life and being ultimately happy. Thoreau uses compare and contrast to demonstrate and put emphasis on the concept of children understanding what the outcome of life should be unlike the adults, who are expected to know, that fabricated the idea of life being about success