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Going To Live In The Woods Rhetorical Analysis

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1. Thoreau uses antithesis to describe his purpose for going to live in the woods to show that if he does the opposite it will be unfortunate. His contradicting points set balance to the first paragraph. If he just put that he wanted to live in the woods, his argument would not have started out as strong. By offering both points of view, he reaches out to a greater audience. 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. Yes, they both may achieve their purpose but they do not capture the bliss of existing. …show more content…

In paragraph four, Thoreau discusses how most people are living an illusion. People don’t look past what is in front of them. This is pertinent to Thoreau’s time because people were only focused on the Transcontinental Railroad. They were being selfish in knowing that it will benefit them but they will be rushing everyone’s lives. This relates to today’s society except instead of the transcontinental railroad, we have smart phones, computers, cars, etc. We are rushing our lives by always making things easier with out smart phones. 7. The purpose of the parable in paragraph five is to reach a greater audience. In the time that Thoreau’s book was written, many Chinese were immigrating to the United States to build the Transcontinental Railroad. Thoreau includes this parable because he knows a large amount of his audience will be Chinese and he wants to relate to them as well as everyone in the East. 8. The if then statement I will be using is “if men would… Entertainments”. If men looked at reality and didn’t live a misleading life then, things we know would look much more elaborate. The major claim is men should look at reality. The minor claim is that if they didn’t live a misleading life, they would see reality. The conclusion is by not living a misleading life and looking at reality, things that we are familiar with become much more

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