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When I Went To The Woods Rhetorical Analysis

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Thoreau’s purpose is to live a simple life. He doesn't want to live the fast life, he wants to see every detail there is and obtain everything life offers. Thoreau wanted to die knowing he lived what life was meant to be. “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.” This is an antithesis because Thoreau supports his decision on going into to the woods by saying if he didn't, he would regret it. Thoreau states, “I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary.” Thoreau is contrasting his purpose with his resignation. He compares his life with a life he doesn't want. The similes in paragraph two are paired up with each of Thoreau ideas. By pairing them he is able to catch the reader's attention. By having similes to compare his ideas, the readers are able to understand what Thoreau point of view is on life. The extended metaphor in paragraph two …show more content…

First he says “we are determined to be starved before we are hungry.” This shows how people are focused on the future that they forget about the present. Then Thoreau mentions how a farmer has an ear out for the fire alarm to save as much of his farm in case of a fire instead of enjoying his farm. Another man is mentioned on how he takes 30 minute naps and when he wakes up or is awoken, he either sees the news or ask for the news after being awake. The news usually had something violet that happened. Since the news was usually violent, it would keep people at home thinking how to be safe in the future, therefore wasting time and some life . instead of taking advantage of the day and being

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The use of antithesis converted his opinion into a supportable assertion. 2. The first simile Thoreau used was about ants and pygmies (“Still we live… wretchedness”). This simile describes how these two groups have a purpose but they do things that don’t benefit themselves in the long run.

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Thoreau is suggesting that the government is not doing enough for it’s people and the government needs to improve. His proposal of two ideas that contrast each other draw attention to a solution he suggests. Rhetorical strategies in writing help readers better understand an intended message and allow acceptance in opinions by introducing ideas in a creative

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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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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.

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Thoreau also related to the world, imprisoning him when he said: “I found myself suddenly neighbor to the birds; not by having imprisoned one but having caged myself near them”. That makes me think about how Thoreau was given a life to be free or to be caged, just as well as any person does too. You can be the puppet of society and live, how the government tells you to live as or not be the puppet and defy what society has to tell you about life and live as you would want to. A rhetorical device Thoreau used to be logos mixed with pathos to convey the reader to see as he sees such as “live free and uncommitted” that would move a person to think living free is what I want and if it 's uncommitted then I’ll take it in my opinion.

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Diction is simply word choice, which Thoreau uses for clarity and precision to convey his message in the best way possible, which coincides directly with imagery which is essentially word pictures. Thoreau’s diction is the key to opening the reader’s mind into his. An example of his excellent use of diction is his use of the word expedient to describe the government. By this description, Thoreau means that the government is simply a resource to the people, and nothing more than that. He furthers this idea through his use of imagery to construct a word picture for better clarity when he states, “It is a sort of wooden gun to the people themselves; and, if ever they should use it in earnest as a real one against each other, it will surely split.”

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In the chapter titled Where I Lived, and What I Lived For from Henry David Thoreau’s novel Walden, the author utilizes rhetorical strategies such as imagery and tone to convey how the distractions that accompany a progressing civilization corrupts society. Since he is a transcendentalist, his argument encapsulates the same principles of becoming free from the binds of society and seeking harmony with nature. He emphasizes those ideals when he states that “[he] went to the woods because he wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if [he] could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when [he] came to die, discover that [he] had not lived”(276). In other words, he wanted to escape from society and live

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