Compare And Contrast Thoreau And Emily Dickinson

Indifferent Similarities American authors have been a great subject of debate in all eras of American writing. Even today many writings are fiercely debated on their meaning and reasoning. Many Authors are also debated on their standpoints in life and in their writings. Two of these authors, Dickinson and Thoreau, are heavily debatable in modern day English classes where they are studied immensely. These writers may be different in character, but these differences give them a unique and certain depth that makes them different yet similar. Both writers were reclusive and did not interact much with society. The more reclusive of the two, Emily Dickinson, was rarely seen outside her house and didn’t even go downstairs for her father’s funeral. Besides being a recluse she was also death obsessed as some critiques called her “first publicized in almost mythic terms as a reclusive,

Thoreau writes very densely with many metaphors, while in contrast Dickinson writes poetry with many dashes, odd capitalizations and few metaphors; especially metaphors of death such as in There’s a Certain Slant of Light “When it goes, ‘tis like the Distance On the Look of Death” (Dickinson 1199). Dickinson’s writing proceeds to show the reader many instances of death. In I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died Dickinson states that the speaker of the story is surrounded by people, presumably loved ones and is in a dying stage. The narrator of the poem recalls the events of his/her death. The narrator shows that before his/her death, he/she can see but with the lack of his sight the narrator instantly dies “There interposed a fly – With Blue – uncertain – stumbling Buzz – Between the light – and me- And then the windows failed – and then I could not see to see” (Dickinson 1207). This basically means that sight is our gateway to life; to live is to see nature and the world in all its glory but to not see is to