Rhetorical Devices In Solitude

When composing the novel “Into The Wild’, Jon Krakauer used his writing strategies and patterns to not only instill certain themes, but also appealing to the audiences sense of, ethics, logistics, and emotions. These are otherwise known as Ethos, Logos, and Pathos. Now these strategies are Jon Krakauer’s way of developing the major themes of the story through the ideas of ethical appeal, logical appeal, and emotional appeal.

Similarly, the perceptions of humans are the same. To the outsider, one may judge Thoreau as a Hermit, while Thoreau himself sees himself differently. Referring to the Hermit-Poet dialogue, Thoreau purposely includes the piece of “Hermit Alone” to contrast the perceptions of himself. This becomes an extended explanation rather than a forceful statement; an attempt to prove to the audience of the validity of his argument. Thus, fulfilling the logos of his rhetorical strategy.

1. Describe the tone Thoreau establishes in paragraph 2. How does it contribute to the rhetorical effect of the paragraph?

Rhetorical Analysis rough draft William Deresiewicz, a contemporary writer, in his essay, “The End of Solitude,” on (January 30,2009) in The Chronicle of Higher Education, discusses how we are replacing the solitude to being in constant communication with people. Deresiewicz’s purpose is to expand on the research of the desire to be recognized, the fear of being alone in his modern culture audience. He uses an aggressive and assertive tone. William Deresiewicz’s claim is that we are replacing the solitude to being in constant communication with people Issues that William Deresiewicz discusses are; What is happening with solitude in these days, why are T.V. and Internet a problem, and the social networking effects on human behavior.

How does the symbolic exchange between Hermit and Poet represent Thoreau’s two sides of himself? Describe the internal struggle.

From a rhetorical standpoint, what makes Thoreau’s speech effective—what strategies and rhetorical appeals emphasize his points or make his argument convincing?

In his essay, Muir describes the Calypso Borealis flower he found one day while exploring. He uses mostly positive connotations and imagery to describe the flower: “I found beautiful Calypso on the mossy bank of a stream… its small white bulb had found a soft nest… and made the impression of the utmost simple purity like a snowflower.” This description of Calypso flower creates a clear picture for the reader of what the Calypso flower looks like, while still creating a joyful tone. Muir does this by using words and phrases with positive connotations, such as “beautiful,” “soft nest,” and “purity.” These descriptions show how Muir views nature with optimism and joy, and finds beauty in nature. Muir goes on to describe how his meeting with Calypso made a larger impression on him than any meeting with another human, even though he met Calypso forty-five years before writing the essay. Muir uses personification in his description to show how he “met” the Calypso flower. He also repeatedly refers to the flower as “Calypso” throughout the essay, as if the flower is a person named Calypso, which shows how this flower meant as much to him or more than any person. Moreover, Muir is a naturalist writer, and he studied how all living things are connected. When he is

Renowned poets and philosophers Walt Whitman and Henry David Thoreau, although being from different schools of thought, actually shared many of the same views about nature and mankind’s role in society. Whitman, being more of a ‘romantic’ poet, praised nature’s beauty and majestic qualities. Thoreau, on the other hand, was more of a Transcendentalist; The Transcendentalism school of thought emphasized individualism as a common theme and celebrated the ‘self’ as a separate, but equal, counterpart to the nature of our environment. While both of these poets had their opinions on the landscape around us, they were quite similar in their beliefs about mankind’s existence and skirted the line between both schools of thought.

For Thoreau, the escape from society was a way to deeply learn about himself and human nature. He writes, “Every morning was a cheerful invitation to make my life of equal simplicity, and I may say innocence, with Nature herself” (Thoreau 72). This simple way of life allowed Thoreau to analyze himself and tendencies within society. He explains the effects of this solitary life on a person: “In proportion as he simplifies his life, the laws of the universe will appear less complex, and solitude will not be solitude, nor poverty poverty, nor weakness weakness” (253). Thoreau was able to discover flaws in society. He states, “... men establish and conform their daily life of routine and habit every where, which still is built on purely illusory foundations” (78). Unlike Hester and Sethe, the societal norms Thoreau experiences are not painful punishments or dehumanizing treatment. However, the “opinion, and prejudice, and tradition, and delusion, and appearance, that alluvion which covers the globe … through poetry, philosophy and religion” (80), can still have a profound and often negative effect on individuals and society as a whole. Thoreau is able to overcome these societal norms because he separates himself from them. Thoreau explains of humankind, “When we are unhurried and wise, we perceive that only great and worthy things have any permanent and absolute existence,-that petty fears and petty pleasures are but the

Thoreau wished to open the minds of many revealing the importance of nature “Let us spend one day as deliberately as Nature, and not be thrown off the track by every nutshell and mosquito's wing that falls on the rails” (Thoreau II). In the quote, Thoreau discusses how he learned to live deliberately in nature encouraging other members of society to do the same. He has learned that it can lead to harmonization with oneself, to

Thoreau and White both use descriptive language in their writing. Thoreau's writing style is serious and straightforward, like reading a diary. Thoreau's description is of serenity as he explains his view of the pond and the woods. When Thoreau talks about the lake being a valuable neighbor in the intervals of a gentle rain in August, when both air and water are being perfectly still, but the sky overcast, mid afternoon had all the serenity of evening. His description of Walden Pond makes you want to escape there. Thoreau lives his life with simplicity in harmony with nature, and is not dependent on mechanical aids.

In Taylor Swift’s “Blank Space”, Swift makes use of a prominent poetic device, paradox. The rhetorical device that Taylor Swift has used again and again in the song is ‘paradox’ and it is considered as her weapon of choice in writing the entire song. For example in the first line “Nice to meet you/ Where you’ve been.” (Swift), it is contradictory. You do not care for where a person has been if you do not met him/her before, unless you knew all along that you will be meeting him or waiting for him even though you did not know who he was. The ‘nice to meet you’ line implies that she has just met him. That is just a first example of a number of paradoxes used in the entire song.

In Walden, Henry David Thoreau explains how a relationship with nature reveals aspects of the true self that remain hidden by the distractions of society and technology. To Thoreau, the burdens of nineteenth century existence, the cycles of exhausting work to obtain property, force society to exist as if it were "slumbering." Therefore, Thoreau urges his readers to seek a spiritual awakening. Through his rhetoric,Thoreau alludes to a "rebirth" of the self and a reconnection to the natural world. The text becomes a landscape and the images become objects, appealing to our pathos, or emotions, our ethos, or character, and our logos, or logical reasoning, because we experience his awakening. Thoreau grounds his spirituality in the physical

Featuring in Henry David Thoreau's book, Walden, was a chapter regarding to solitude. Solitude as Thoreau refers it to be is isolation from other inhabitants; due to the fact that he previces other inhabitants to be inconsequential and irrelevant to his own life. He accomplishes the task of presenting his point of view to the reader by starting the piece with a rather melancholic attitude then slowly transforming it into a sarcastic attitude. This then allowed him to state the true underlined meaning behind his chapter, Solitude.

"No man is an island." This famous quotation explains the nature of man as a social being. It is truly a fact that human beings cannot exist in isolation. They need to be interdependent with each other in order to survive. This interdependence is needed because a human being alone will not be able to fill his own social needs, and his material necessities came from other people as well. All acts of society such as sex, love, and dependence are essential for the survival of any species. Interaction and socialization is the only way to prevent people from isolation, from solitude.