All throughout this semester we have read great poems, articles, books, and all kinds or different genres of American literature. Henry David Thoreau’s “Walden” and Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury are the two pieces of American Literature that are going to be broken down and explained in this essay. Thoreau wrote “Walden” to show people the way he was living and the very little necessities he needed to live. Fahrenheit 451 is different than walden because it is set in the future where society is moving in the opposite direction that romantics want it to move in.
I will also be sharing my views on freedom and selfhood and how these thematic topics are valued in my life.Henry David Thoreau was a romantic who believed in living life simply and not over complicating it with things that do not matter when you look at the bigger picture of life. His book is about how he moved out into nature and In his book Walden Thoreau uses a wide variety of figurative language and literary elements such as characterization, conflict, denotation and connotation, metaphor, simile, and irony. In Thoreau’s book “Walden” he writes, “With unrelaxed nerves, with morning vigor, sail by it, looking another way, tied to the mast like Ulysses.” This is a simile that is comparing the unrelaxed nerves, with morning vigor, sail by it, looking another way, tied to the mast, to ulysses. Another example of Thoreau using figurative language and literary elements is a metaphor. “My head is hands and feet.
I feel all my best faculties concentrated in it.” This is a very odd metaphor that Thoreau uses here and I believe it means that a person’s mind is the centerpiece of the body and the feet and the hands can not do anything without the mind. “My instinct tells me that my head is an organ for burrowing, as some creatures use their snout and forepaws, and with it I would mine and burrow my way through these hills.” Here Thoreau uses personification as a form of figurative language or literary elements. He uses Personification to compare the animal’s snout and forepaws to he human brain. Throughout “Walden” Thoreau uses different types of figurative language and literary elements to help hi illustrate and better convey what he is trying to let the reader understand about his viewpoints and ideals on life. Henry David Thoreau was a romantic who believed in living life simply and not over complicating it with things that do not matter when you look at the bigger picture of life and he showed that by using multiple varieties of language and literary elements.
Henry David Thoreau also inspired many people and was one of the first romatics of his time, carved the path for people who were lost and did not agree with the way that their society was. At one point he spent two years living almost in complete solitude in a cabin in the woods in Massachusetts that he had built himself. He wanted to escape society and to see what it really felt like to live alone and be completely independent. He did all of this so he could show people that life can be lived simply and without all of the extra things that technology had provided for us. He believed we should all stand up to our governments if they’re not doing the right thing.
In conclusion, Henry David Thoreau was a romantic who wanted to live his life simply and to not let anybody tell him what to do. Freedom and selfhood are shown all over Fahrenheit 451. In the novel books are banned and nobody can read them, this limits someone’s freedom and selfhood. Books are a way to express yourself and find what you are interested in.
In the novel people are striped from that and they do not agree with it. This is a Romantic ideal, if you feel that a government is not doing the right thing then stand up to them. In conclusion, when freedom and/or selfhood is striped away from someone they feel the need and obligation to get it back.
I believe that freedom and selfhood go hand in hand. You need freedom to be yourself and to be able to express yourself. I believe that freedom is something that every person in entitled to and selfhood is something that everyone should have. To be able to express yourself and have a sense of selfhood innecidary in finding who you are and the kind of person you are. I believe that I do have selfhood because I do not let others dictate my actions and I do what I want to do and what I believe is right one hundred percent of the time.
I know many people who lose themselves because they do not have a sense of identity because they have been following what other people are doing their entire lives. I believe that I am a part romantic because I believe in staying true to who you are. When I first moved to the United States I just wanted to fit in and be like everyone around me. I felt like I was different and at the time I thought that was bad thing but as I grew up here I learned that you have to be different.
I believe that I do possess some romantic ideals such as the idea that society is moving in the wrong direction. I do believe that people are becoming more reliant on technology and this will continue to progress. I do not want to rely on technology everyday of my life, I am already on my phone everyday and I do not like how long I am on it but I need to be on it because that is the direction that society is moving in. I do not believe that we should get rid of all technology like Romantics but I do believe that is going to get out of hand and people are going to rely on technology more than they rely on themselves.
Another thing i would like to bring up is the idea that romantics have about putting faith and out future in the hands of our children. I one hundred percent agree with this because I believe that children are our future and we should trust them more and not to try and bring them down. Romantics believed that we do not take care of our children well enough and that we should cherish them because they are our future. I do not consider myself as a full romantic but I do agree with some of their ideals. Romantics believe that life should be lived simply and in nature, they believe that technology is ruining the way that people think and is taking over their lives. I consider myself a part romantic because I do believe in following your heart and doing what you believe in instead of what someone else’s beliefs. Staying true to myself is something that I had to go through and it is something that I truly value.
I believe that romantic ideals are important to our contemporary world only if people want them to be. People that believe in something will make their voices heard and make it important in our world, but today in our world they are not because not enough people believe in these ideals. Most people are ok with sitting on their couch and watching tv all day and not even care about how our country is doing, and more evidence that romantic ideals are not important to our contemporary world is because of the United States current political state. In conclusion, studying romantics and romantics has really opened my eyes to whole new perspective on life and how to view people.
It has shown me parts of myself that I did not know I had.
