Winter Animals Rhetorical Analysis

Winter Animals

Thoreau wrote the multiple essays and chapters in the book “Walden and Civil Disobedience” when he lived alone, in the woods, a mile from any neighbor, in a house that he built himself, on the shore of Walden Pond, in Concord, Massachusetts. He lived there for two years and two months. In the “Winter Animals” portion, he talks about the encounters he has with the animals in the winter. Through his engagement with them, the readers get a feel for his transcendentalist thoughts of nature along with self-reliance- the way he lives a simple lifestyle. While living at Walden Pond and by removing himself from society, Thoreau chooses a transcendentalist mindset and way of living that is conveyed throughout the chapter along with his

Throughout this chapter, the readers sense a sad and depressing tone. Thoreau's mood was very low and he was "troubled with flatulency and bad dreams" (214). Thoreau projects his melancholy onto the lake itself. Previously, he has described the lake as a mirror. Now the frozen lake groans as if it is sleeping poorly, having bad dreams. Unlike the animals, neither the lake nor Thoreau himself can quietly and comfortably sleep the winter months away. He also mentioned that on winter nights the "forlorn but melodious note of a hooting owl [sounded] indefinitely far," (213). This quote helps the readers get a sense of his attitude and his feeling of loneliness and sadness. The hooting owl in reality should sound close to him because there is no civilization surrounding him, so he is surrounded by silence. The sounds of the animals in the winter differ from the sounds in the spring or summer. In the winter there's less liveliness and animals because they either migrate or lay down or burrow somewhere. The readers can tell the winter season is taking a toll and that he starting getting sad and depressed because it is so quiet and lonely. The woods and the sounds it reflects are not those of happiness and life as in the

The industrial age was about new manufacturing process which was the opposite of Thoreau's transcendentalist life and self-reliance. He wanted to live a simple life and everything he did or made at Walden Pond was just that way. This also ties into another one of his transcendentalist theories of individualism. He believed people should do what they want and believe. So people didn’t have to go along with the new industrial life and instead could be like him and go live away from it all. His words in this chapter also reflected the concern he had over the ways growth and progress damaged nature. One of the problems Thoreau has with society are the people cutting down the forest. He tries to convince his audience to see the the tranquility and animals in nature so they don’t cut it down. Nature was his safe place and he wanted to protect