Henry David Thoreau throughout his works uses many different levels to his writing. Lines even phrases from Thoreau’s writings can be taken in many different directions. Thoreau’s topics ranged from our inner thoughts, the environment and the political landscape in his time. All of these areas have substantive material and the way he phrases and styles his writing the reader can take his meaning in several different directions. Thoreau uses double meanings numerous times in his essay “Walking.” In the essay “Walking” Thoreau makes a double meaning when he stated “How womankind, who are confined to the house still more than men, stand it I do not know; but I have ground to suspect that most of them do not STAND it at all” (Walking 2) The key …show more content…
Thoreau's personifies trees in this sentence giving it human like characteristics as it has the power to “send forth” its fibers towards the “wild.” By giving the tree human like characteristics Thoreau infers that nature is alive and to truly experience it you need to go to a part of nature not affected by society. Thoreau states earlier in the passage that the west is the wild he refers to in this sentence. During this time the west was the frontier of the United States filled with unknown and adventure. This would mean that nature would always make it’s way towards land untouched by society. However, Thoreau could also mean that a person is the tree in this phrase. In this interpretation Thoreau would mean that a person would spread their roots in a part of the world untouched by society and experience things they would not have experienced if they stayed in their comfort zone. By going off into the “wild” they would experience so much more and see so much more than what they usually would have