Senior Research Paper

In “Where I Lived and What I Lived For,” Thoreau uses figurative language to illustrate what life was like at Walden Pond. Through personification, he describes the sunrise, “as the sun arose, I saw it throwing off its nightly clothing of mists”(58) as having human characteristics. Thoreau also uses similes to illustrate the lake in the morning “while the mists, like ghosts, were stealthily withdrawing in every direction into the woods.”(58) Setting is also an important factor in Walden. He gives descriptions on

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” “For I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essentials facts of life, and to see if I could not learn what in had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. ”(157)

By living in such solitude Thoreau became aware of his transcendentalist ways and would describe nature and what it would symbolize as a higher spiritual meaning to him. Such in depth descriptions give pictures and adds texture in the imagination of the readers. how “the real attraction of the farm were: its complete retirement, being about two miles from the village, half a mile from the nearest neighbor, and separated from the highway by a broad field,”(56) to set a visual picture for how uninhabited Walden Pond really was. ”(74) By doing this, he is able to give an insight what the sound of the train passing by might sound like. By using the elements of figurative language, Thoreau is able to engage two different subjects and bring together the similarities. ”(72)

In this, Thoreau is describing the simplicities of his life by comparing his stay at Walden Pond to the Indians before his time. By living in such an isolated setting, Thoreau would write in his journal and describe what went on during his daily activities. Throughout this chapter of “Sounds”, Thoreau describes everything in depth to create a vivid picture in the mind of the readers. During some of the months of winter the snow would be too thick to go outside, which caused Thoreau to live in solitude without a single visitor to come through his doors. ”(154) In this he is describing how time flows along and disregards the “tragedies”. ” (152) “Former inhabitants” is a record of Thoreau’s life during the most lonesome days of his stay at Walden Pond, but also is one of the most explained.

Thoreau uses the sounds around him to give a sense of realism to the setting, in “Sounds,” another chapter in Walden. ” Walden is a novel, taken from his journal of his daily activities that describes his beliefs and thoughts during his stay in Massachusetts.

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Approximate Word count = 864
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

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