Walking Thoreau Rhetorical Analysis

In Henry David Thoreau’s essay, “Walking”, he exemplifies a walk in the woods. Thoreau describes his feelings and the surroundings when he walks. He walks further and further into different landscapes. Thoreau argues in his essay that the things that humans have created in this world are all minimal and irrelevant to the world and nature itself. Thoreau argues that all these things that occupy our lives are minimalistic in the eyes of nature. Thoreau uses imagery, irony, and repetition to support his argument.
In Thoreau’s essay he repeatedly uses imagery to illustrate the feeling and looks of where he walks. He attempts to show the reader what he is seeing and feeling at the time of him walking in different locations. In the third paragraph, Thoreau writes, “I can easily walk ten, fifteen, twenty, any number of miles, commencing at my own door, without going by any house, without crossing a road expert where the fox and the mink do…” Thoreau uses this sentence to help the reader visualize the type of walks

He repeats the word, “woods,” many times in the first paragraph. He writes, “I am alarmed when it happened that I walked a mile into the woods bodily, without getting there in spirit,” and, “What business have I in the woods, if I am thinking of something outside of the woods?”, and also, “Even some sects of philosophers have felt the necessity of importing the woods to themselves, since they did not go to the woods.” The repetition of the word woods keeps appearing throughout the essay. The repetition of this words keeps the reader focused on the real importance of the world. This world is not about our human problems and businesses and parties, it is about nature and what helps us live in this world in peace and harmony. When Thoreau mentions that many philosopher import the woods to themselves, it must be for a reason. The woods and nature are needed in life, or human life may perish without