Analyzing Henry David Thoreau's 'Reading'

The epigraph in this chapter was a passage from Henry David Thoreau 's “Life in the Woods”. In the excerpt, it explains how phenomenal nature is and how majority of people never take advantage of exploring it and discovering new things. Instead, they continue to live life the way its most accepted in society, “All nature is your congratulation, and you have cause momentarily to bless yourself. The greatest gains and values are farthest from being appreciated. We easily come to doubt if they exist. We soon forget them. They are the highest reality... The true harvest of my daily life is somewhat as intangible and indescribable as the tints of morning or evening”. McCandless meets Ronald

From the beginning of the essay and throughout the duration of it, Gioia builds on his argument of how literature is dying and why it matters. She states, “The significance of reading has become a persistent theme in the business world.” and “business leaders consistently set imagination, creativity, and higher-order

Throughout my life, I have remembered times where someone has read to me or I have read a book that has impacted me. From the time when I was three and my mother would read to me, to today. When I was in kindergarten, I didn’t like to read. I believed that reading was unexciting and that it was a waste of time. Most of the time, I would watch television when I came home from school. Since I didn’t like to read and would never practice reading, I had to acquire help from one of the teachers who would take me out of the regular reading class and she would teach me how to read at my pace. Even though I believed that reading was unexciting, I love to read now.

These journeys vary in nature, traveling though the more pessimistic, cynical, and sometimes even nihilistic parts of the intellect, to traveling through the optimistic peaks of higher human ideas. In “The Minister’s Black Veil,” Hawthorne has shown that we all hide secrets; in “The Fall of the House of Usher,” Poe has shown the strength of fear over each individual; and in “Civil Disobedience,” Thoreau revealed the power of one to govern oneself. The vast range of knowledge that these insights present is great, but they all accomplish the same thing: providing a glimpse into the complex working of the human mind. This goal is not an easy one to accomplish, but throughout the history of Romanticism, Gothicism, and Transcendentalism, it was done time and time again. One can begin reading a story from one of these periods in the name of pleasure without any intent of gaining knowledge, but upon finishing the text the reader will certainly know his or herself at a much more intimate and personal

There are two ways that this quotation might be interpreted, one way focuses on a person's goodness, or lack of, and the other concerns benign or malicious intentions.

“...soon enough to forget them when we have the learning and the genius which will enable us to attend to and appreciate them” (Thoreau, “Reading,” Par. 6). When focusing on something, we sometimes have the tendency to forget what happiness truly means to us. Some people focus too much on one certain thing and expect to have the true happiness we have been searching for. Thoreau’s proven point was to help the reader understand that taking new challenges is okay and it can helps us become happier and wiser. Happiness comes in all sorts of different ways and with the knowledge that we get whether it comes from books or nature, Thoreau knew that challenging oneself would help one reach the happiness they are searching for.

Q2.) As Henry David continued to observe the Woodchuck his carefree attitude slowly began to alter into new found respect. While first examining the groundhog, he found the animal to be funny and clumsy, with its chubby face and small, round ears. When Henry tried to toy with the Woodchuck, it just stared back at him standing its ground. This was the moment Henry David Thoreau realized that the Woodchuck is adapting to his very presence. Henry David acknowledges the animal as a truly humble creature. Thoreau realized that the Woodchuck was a much more acclimate creature than us humans. This occasion has helped him learn that patience is key to adapting, and that wisdom and knowledge can be learned on a daily basis.

From this point, he concludes that literature is concerned with symbolic action, that literary or mythological characters are typical, and that the world of poet imagery is “totally symbolic” (p. 75). He then moves to the principle of “literature as a whole” (p. 49): “you don’t just read one poem or novel after another, but enter into a complete world of which every work of literature forms a part” (p. 69). Hence there is a progressive element in the study and teaching of literature: as we read more works, we become able to generalize from our experience of literature.

“Reading gives us someplace to go when we have to stay where we are,” (Cooley). Throughout our lives, reading has impacted us in many ways. Often times books give people different perspectives on their lives. People with high stress levels often find comfort in reading books to take their mind off of their concerns. Sometimes, people just need to take a step back from their lives and relax for a while; therefore, reading is a great tool. In fact, all kinds of books have also helped me become a better writer. There are many different books that have impacted me over the years.

In his essay “Walking” Henry David Thoreau offers the following assessment of literature: “In literature it is only the wild that attracts us. Dullness is but another name for tameness. It is the uncivilised free and wild thinking in Hamlet and The Iliad, in all scriptures and mythologies,not learned in schools, that delights us” Write an essay in which you explain what constitutes The Poisonwood Bible’s “uncivilised, wild and free thinking,” and how that thinking is central to the value and meaning of the work as a whole.

Though the reasons for their pilgrimages were different, transcendentalists emphasized journeys into nature. Henry David Thoreau, perhaps the most famous transcendentalist, wrote Walden on his time spent in the wilderness of Walden pond. Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote Nature on his walks into the woods. Much of Emerson’s works were on intuition and self-reliance. Jeremiah Johnson is a modern movie that seemingly adopts the ideas of these transcendentalist authors into a narrative about a man who leaves civilisation for the mountain. All three characters had different stated motivations. Thoreau left to “live simply” (Thoreau). Emerson left for solitude. Though it never was stated directly, Jeremiah Johnson left to “Leave his troubles far behind”, with later hints to him being a deserter of the Mexican American War. But why is nature a staple of transcendentalism? Transcendentalism, unlike rationalism or empiricism, is founded on the belief that one can “transcend the data that we intake via our senses” using intuition (Dwinell). For Transcendentalists, nature is the path to truth, because it is there intuition rules above all.

Foster reveals various tropes and archetypes that can be found manifesting within literature. He proclaims that there is no original works in the world of literature, they have all derived from a singular source. Through the duration of How To Read Literature Like A Professor, Foster continues to explain symbolic figures and how they are not always what they seem to be. In chapter four, Foster explains the greatest thing about being an English teacher is the ability recognize repetitive characters and archetypes within literature, like “meeting old friends”. Later in chapter nine, Foster discussed the significance of how location can change a situation drastically and how climate, culture and a ways of adapting play a big role in

Mr. Keating, the outgoing, encouraging English teacher profoundly represents Thoreau's ideas of individuality by his words and actions, both in and outside of the classroom. Mr. Keating first shows an example of transcendentalism ideas during class, when he encourages his students to tear out the pages of the introduction. Mr. Keating believes the boys need to learn to analyze the poetry for themselves, and not listen to someone else's interpretation. He tells his students “Now in my class you will learn to think for yourselves again.” ( Dead Poets Society: Final Script). Mr. Keating wants his students to look beyond what a book says, and he wants the boys to interpret things they way they want to. Mr. Keating represents transcendentalist ideas again in the courtyard scene. He is emphasizing the dangers

The autobiography “Walden” by Henry David Thoreau is a first-person narrative explaining what Thoreau personally experienced from his experiment after two years of living at Walden Pond, encompassed by nature. Thoreau isolates himself from society and martial earnings to gain a higher understanding of what it means to have freedom as an individual. He simplifies his life to get closer to nature to learn more about himself and society. If we focus too much on obtaining these so-called comforts of life. We blur the fact that these luxuries are a hindrance to self-freedom. In society, if you do not follow the same rhythm as everyone else. You will be seen as an out casting in the community. That is not freedom

Reading has at all times and in all ages been a source of knowledge, of happiness, of pleasure and even moral courage. In today's world with so much more to know and to learn and also the need for a conscious effort to conquer the divisive forces, the importance of reading has increased. In the olden days if reading was not cultivated or encouraged, there was a substitute for it in the religious sermon and in the oral tradition. The practice of telling stories at bed time compensated to some extent for the lack of reading. In the nineteenth century Victorian households used to get together for an hour or so in the evenings and listen to books being read aloud. But today we not only read, we also want to read more and more and catch up