1. When Thoreau writes, "simplify, simplify" in the second paragraph, he is reccomending that people do as much as possible to reduce their lives down to knly the neccesities. Society today tells us that nothing is ever good enough and that more is better; Thoreau is telling us to challenge those standards. He also suggests that, by making our lives so complicated and busy, we are in fact making things much harder than they have to be. His suggestion implies that mankind as a whole would be happier if everything were more simple, and that the idea of "progress" is not actual progress at all.
2. Thoreau spends much more time talking about life in modern day society than the seclusion he is experiencing in the woods because there is a lot more going on in towns and cities, and he would run out of things to say about life in the woods pretty quickly. Just he says we need to "reduce other things in proportion", Thoreau reduces his own impression on his current life by writing little abou it. The sheer amount of description Thoreau puts into his paragraphs about life in towns and cities is enough to stress the reader out. By spending more time describing life in society than life in seclusion, Thoreau is physically showing us how much easier life is simplified.
1. When Thoreau repeats, “Simply, simplify” in paragraph 2, he recommends that people should reduce their complex lives down to include only the necessities. For example, society dictates that people should be as interactive as possible; however, Thoreau says, “Let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand” (par. 2). By giving examples of simplicity and contrasting them with complicated situations, Thoreau shows that people can be happier and lead more fulfilling lives if they lived simply.
2. In his essay, Thoreau spends more time describing the city and town life compared to describing his life in the woods. He might have chosen to do this to illustrate the complexity of city life. By using an abundance of descriptions and pointing out all the excesses of a city, such as newspapers, which he characterizes as “gossip,” he convinces his reader that a simpler life is better (par. 4). Then, Thoreau limits his descriptions of the woods shows how a life in the woods is much simpler. Through his descriptions, Thoreau draws a contrast between a lifestyle in the city and one in the woods.
1. In the second paragraph when Thoreau stresses to "simplify, simplify," he is hinting that our society works so hard to gain so little (par. 2). We as people are naturally prone to look at details and want everything perfect, in an idealistic manner. However, Thoreau asks why we find that to be so important. He comments that "like pygmies w fight with cranes; it is error upon error, and clout upon clout, and our best virtue has for its occasion a superfluous and evitable wretchedness" (par. 2). People can make life more tolerable through the simplicity of being content with what you are naturally supplied with. Sure we are all greedy and maybe that is a natural state of human beings, Thoreau believes that our longing for more is what makes us feel trapped in a world with less.
2. Thoreau makes his argument through his essay about why he chose to live in the woods, so he writes mostly about the hustle and bustle of city life. He claims he "wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terns" (par. 1). Throughout his essay, he is backing up his argument by giving specific examples to justify each point he just made. The syntax of his writing is interesting because he focuses so heavily on city and town life, but barely on life in the forest; with that said, he is representing how life in the forest does not involve much detail or attention, but it can still function as a home, just as well as a high-maintenance society can.
1. When Thoreau recommends people to “simplify, simplify,” he is referring to the common obsession of complicating life. He attempts to lead people to a better life by saying that the “essential facts of life” (par 1) are the only necessary component for happiness. By repudiating the examples he gives about how humans tend to present details, he claims that reduction or simplifying is the best policy.
2. Thoreau spends more time describing people’s busied lives in towns and cities more than he does describing his life in the woods because he wants to emphasize the flaws of complication. He references the over detailing of trivial matters such as food or news in order to explain to others his views about simplification. If he had merely discussed his life in the woods, many may have thought that it seemed nice; however, few would find an issue with the hurried lives that they live in the city. By choosing to focus on the lives of the common readers, Thoreau illustrates city lives that many people can relate to and find flaws in.
1. When Thoreau commands the reader to "simplify, simplify"(par. 2), he is recommending that people take stock of their lives and strive to cut out those elements that are not essential. He explains that someone with many responsibilities and accounts will lose control of them and quickly lose his grasp on life because he will be distracted. Thoreau advises his readers to simplify the clutter out of their lives so that they can truly live a pure life without being sidetracked by nonessentials.
2. Thoreau concentrates his writing on hectic city life because he wants to draw a contrast between such a meaningless life and one with deeper meaning amongst nature. He draws his readers into his arguement, pointing out elements of their own lives that seem normal and routine, and then attacks them for being just that. Thoreau criticizes mindless entertainment as "petty pleasures"(par. 6) and argues that we live in the "dark unfathomed mammoth cave of the world"(par. 3). When his readers recognize elements of their own lives in Thoreau's arguement, they will take notice of what he is saying and pay more attention to his thesis.
1. When Thoreau tells us to "simplify, simplify" in paragraph two, he is trying to tell his readers to reduce their life to their necessities. Our current society is one that idealizes a busy schedule and that more is better. However, Thoreau asks, is that really the best idea? If we continue to make our lives full and busy, we will never be happy. Instead, a simple life would actually be much more fulfilling.
2. Throughout his essay, Thoreau chooses to write more on his life in modern day cities rather than his life in the forest. By doing this, Thoreau emphasizes the complexity and pointlessness of cities. He needs so much more space to write about how busy his life was there, which is the exact opposite of what he is advocating. He writes little on his life in the woods, perhaps because it was simple. This simplicity shows how pleasurable it must have been to lead a worth living. In the woods, he can "live deliberately" and only with "the essential facts of life" (par. 1). On the other hand, the normal life in towns and cities is one that requires pages to describe and "lives to fast," which is not how he wants to experience life (par. 2). Furthermore, he does this to offer the reader only a tantalizing glimpse. In order for anyone to understand him, they must experience life in the woods for themselves.
1. When Thoreau says, "Simplify, simplify" in paragraph two, he is saying that people in society need to reduce the complexity of their lives to only the key basics and necessities. He believes that having to spend so much time on the different and unnecessary aspects of life takes away time which could be used to do something more productive in his eyes. He criticizes society, saying that "the nation itself, with all its so-called internal improvements... is just such an unwieldy and overgrown establishment" (par. 2). Thoreau values simplicity over complexity because he believes that only the core essentials are needed to carry out good lives.
2. Thoreau spends more time talking about the normal daily life in towns and cities than his own life in the woods in order to emphasize the complications of what is seen to be as a standard style of living. In addition, by possibly avoiding faults that could be found in his own way of life, he constantly keeps the readers attention focused on their own lives and the flaws that are in it without considering the possible flaws in the only other option ( fallacy of false dichotomy). Thus, Thoreau attempts to convince the public if his own lifestyle by knocking down the choice of society, making it appear that there are only two choices.
1. When Thoreau says, “Simplify, simplify” (par. 2) he is advising that people should reduce their lives to only the necessities. Although it is a norm in today’s society to have busy and complex lives, Thoreau argues that those people are making their lives more complicated and distracting than need be. Thoreau recommends that people discard nonessential parts of their schedules in order to live a simple and happy life.
2. In order to further his argument that daily life in towns in overly hectic and complex, Thoreau spends much more time thoroughly describing the flaws of city life than his life in the woods. Because many people haven’t experienced complete seclusion from society in the woods, they wouldn’t have been able to relate with Thoreau if he only discussed the positive aspects of solitude. Instead, he inundates the reader with negative descriptions of city life to convince the reader that simple life in the woods is better.
1. When Thoreau writes "Simplify, simplify" (par. 2), he recommends the reader to live a simple life. In the second paragraph, Thoreau explains the many unnecessary aspects of human life. He claims that human life is "ruined by luxury and heedless expense" (par. 2). Essentially, people believe that they need everything that is up-to-date or "today," whether or not they actually need it. Thoreau declares that people should live "in a rigid economy, a stern and more than Spartan simplicity of life and elevation of purpose" (par. 2).
2. Thoreau might have chosen to describe more of life in towns and cities because his readers, on the whole, live towns and cities instead of the woods. By describing in detail the extravagance of the urban life to urban readers, Thoreau can effectively spread his message to live a simple life.
1. When Thoreau writes, " simplify, simplify" in the second paragraph, he calls on the reader to reduce their current life style with all the luxuries and excessive materials. He is emphasizing his point that people need to drastically reduce what they have in life and move back to the bare necessities. He believes that life has gotten to a point in which it has gotten so complex and complicated that life will become harder to enjoy. His argument is to simplify life.
2. He choses to talk about the town and city life more then his wood experience because its makes for a much better structure for a persuasive essay. The reader can relate in their own lives with towns and cities. It helps his argument that he can point out the problems with that type of life because the reader experiences it everyday. It also in come ways overwhelm the reader with detail after detail. Then by comparing it to his woodland experience it makes his life choice more well simple.
1. When Thoreau reiterates ‘Simplify,’ he comments that most people have too much going on in their lives that they can’t manage, so he recommends for people to simplify their lives. He gives as example of eating fewer meals and the German Confederation being to widespread to control under one ruler as a metaphor to say how we all try to do too many things at the same time in life, instead of focusing on one or a few things. Although he says that the federation gets internal improvements now and then, like how we buy more gadgets for our own leisure or buy new clothes to wear, they don’t really help for they are all “external and superficial” (par.2).
2. Thoreau elaborates on his life in the city rather than in the woods to show that many of our lives are much more complex and busy than they need to be. In par 4, he explains how he could do without a post-office, for ‘there are very few important communications made through it’ (par. 4). He condemns the post office saying that it is unnecessary because you are paying for someone else’s thoughts or a memory. In addition, he says that the newspapers are like ‘gossip’, implying that we have so many things that are really unnecessary in life. Thoreau elaborates on the city life to contrast with the simplicity of life in the woods.
1. WHen THoreau says "simplify", he is suggesting that the life people live currently are much too complicated and unnecessary. Instead, we should reflect on our lives and find what is really crucial and what is not needed at all. Then, we should discard what is not needed so we live lives that are simple, not busy, and happy. That perfect life should emulate what it is like to live in the forest/wilderness.
2. If Thoreau describes more to the life he lives in the woods, there is little for us, the reader, to relate to. Instead, he develops his point by describing the life that most of us live. As a result, we can relate everything he says to something in our own personal life. THen when Thoreau ridicules and points out the weaknesses of that certain aspect of our life, it is much more powerful on the reader. By choosing to elaborate more on the life of everyday people than his own secluded life, Thoreau is able to make his point stronger to the reader.
1. Thoreau writes, "simplify, simplify" in regards to what he wishes for the lives of his readers. His entire essay is supposed to caution us against over complicating our lives, asking, "Why should we live with such hurry and waste of life?" (3). Thoreau presses the idea that a life should be simplified to only the necessities, and that a overly complex life pales in comparison to a simple one.
2. Thoreau writes far more about the complicated, busy, industrial, city life that he cautions against for two reasons: first, there is a lot for Thoreau to address since it is a subject he is passionate about and wants desperately to warn others against, and second, stylistically, the description of city life is more chaotic and busy and complicated, which pulls off the image that Thoreau is trying to show. By writing far less about the simple life with nature that he endorses, he highlights its simplicity that he values so much.
1) Thoreau, in telling his audience to "simplify, simplify", is effectively recommending discarding all of the pointless opulences of life and only paying heed to what is absolutely necessary. Thoreau points out examples of many unecessary tasks with which his 19th century peers occupied themselves, some of which are applicable today. In pointing out the ridiculousness of these chores, Thoreau shows that we waste our time with idle tasks and that we should try to eliminate as many as possible from our lives.
2) Thoreau understands that the woods are a distant, unreal scenario to his audience. He understands that in order for his audience to relate his philosophy to their lives, they will have to be given examples of what is wrong with their lives. Thoreau identifies with his audience by using examples readily applicable to their lives.
1. Like it has been said much before, I agree that Thoreau writes, "simplify, simplify" in the second paragraph to stress how people waste time making life more difficult and more confusing than it needs to be. When people make everything so complicated, they are no longer living their lives, but forcing their lives to be a certain way thats harder. Simplifying is the best thing people can do to achieve true happiness.
2. He would do this to prove that people make life much more complicated. City life has its benefits, but at the same time is very complex--much more than it needs to be. He describes the woods less because the woods are a simple place to live in comparison to cities, so Thoreau tries to prove his point that happiness is found in simplicity.
By charging the reader to "simplify, simplify", Thoreau is making the point that modern lives are overly complicated with meaningless taks that "fritter away" the precious moments we have. By simplifying our lives and reducing these non-essentails we will be able to purify our life and get to the true essence of what living is.
Thoreau goes more extensivel into describing hte city life to illuminate just how over complicated it is in contrast with the pure simplicity of the woods. For him, the woods are a very idealic and uncompromised place, so going into to much details would spoil the almost supernatural purity and mystery. Whereas the towns and cities are littered with complications that endlessly stack up which is reflected in his extensive description of their adulteration of life.
1. When Thoreau writes "Simplify, simplify", he is advising people to take away the clutter in life that people create through their detailed organization. He is suggesting doing less to avoid the stress that follows paying attention to minute details in one's daily affairs. With less complications, the events that do occur become more meaningful and thus produce better results, such as homework or chores.
2. He probably chose to do this way of writing the essay first of all because he had very little real experience with only nature surrounding him, so he has little experience compared to for example Emerson. As well, if he talks about the city more, his audience will recognize the situations he discusses. With these points, people will think about how their life would be different if we did not run when the bell rang and instead calmly walked or did not listen to the sound. More people will read his writing if he sounds sane as well rather than a savage as many people would inherently associate with a person of nature.
1. Thoreau writes "Simplify, simplify" to tell the reader to try to minimalize everything that they do in the day. He wants less of everything, even food as he gives the example of simplifying how much we eat in the day by cutting down what we eat to one meal. He also says that if we simplify one thing, it affects many other aspects of life thus giving you more time and reducing the "clutter" in your life which is "external" and "superficial" and "overgrown." He adds on to the food example by saying how 100 dishes becomes five by eating only once. Overall, Thoreau cannt stress enough about how people need to keep everything as basic as possible for your own sake as well as the sake of others.
2. Thoreau talks about the city more because the city is more comlpex than the woods. The woods are simple, basic, straight-foreward. The city, on the other hand, is a mess of over-complicated jobs, information, and lives collaborating in a disjointed mass. In the city, the train stops for no one while in the woods, it waits for anyone to come along. The whole city life is much more complex and harder to explain than the woods which is why Thoreau talks about it more in his essay.
1.When Thereau advises the reader to "simplify, simplify"(paragraph 2), he asserts his argument criticizing the unnecessary complexity of societies. He wants people to slow down and instead of worrying and thinking about their "hundred" or a "thousand" "affairs" (2). Instead he wants people to slow down and enjoy the simpler things. He questions "why should we live with a such a hurry and wate of life?" (3). He advises people to derive pleasure for the common things and ignore their deluded desires for fulfilling unmeaningful tasks. 2. Essentially, he describes how people should not act. His audience targets city dwellers and townsman, and thus, he draws on city experience in hopes of resonating with the readers' city experiences. If he dedicated the majority of the essay to simply the nature life, he would not be able to establish a connection with the audience as they have nothing to relate to. In addition, he rips apart the city in order to emphasize that it's not that the goodness of nature is the focal idea of his essay. Instead, his primary purpose is to describe why city life is so terrible and why people need to change.
1. Thoreau, like so many public figures today, is telling us to reduce our consumption. Though it isn't modern in the sense that we're talking about ending our dependence on foreign oil, but he means that we (Americans) over complicate things. He wants us to stop eating three meals a day "if it be necessary to eat but one" (para. 2). Thoreau considers man to be disorganized and to have lost sight of what the real values and goals of life are -- he thinks that people have become so concerned with trivial matters and their lives in such excessive quantities that nobody really understands life anymore. He urges people to "simplify, simplify" and to get back on track to a good, real life.
2. Town life is far more complex, so it deserves more description. The thesis of this passage (and at least from what I've gleaned, of the whole book) is that one needs to immerse oneself in the simplicity of nature and the necessities of life. By only focusing on the necessary nuances of wood-life, Thoreau drives his point home: The city is far more complex and over the top; the only way to reach true happiness and understanding is in the simplicity of nature.
1. Thoreau points out the pollution in man's convoluted life by repeatedly calling for simplification. Assuming that the frenetic audience will take an obstinate position towards his claim, Thoreau must repeat his call to action so that the readers do not misinterpret his hard-to-accept argument. Also, because his argument essentially attacks standard living, Thoreau must take pains to point out many common examples to clarify his argument since an attack on normal, unnoticed habits will probably face much opposition.
2. Thoreau opens his essay by providing credibility; a man who has wandered into nature in search for a way to live life to the fullest must certainly be qualified to preach his findings. However, rambling about pristine life in a forest will likely not convince his audience to accept his claim. Thoreau's must keep his focus on the flaws of society, not the beauty of nature and solitude, because his audience is familiar with the former, not the latter. Though Thoreau could ask his audience to go out in a forest to experience true life, he knows that he must first disillusion his readers. They will not take his claim seriously if they feel that their own lives are just fine, so Thoreau must focus on why their lives are corrupt to drive his point home.
1. Within the second paragraph, the suggestion of "simply, simplify" is a recommendation that everyone should get rid of the unnecessary aspects of their lives. Thoreau believes that the current "modern" standards are broken and that by always having to keep up with modern technology, we are less happy than we could be.
2. MOre time is given to the discussion of City life for two reasons. First, a lot more goes on in the city then does in the forest. Second, it could be a metaphor Thoreau is using to show the complexity of city life by describing it in much greater detail than the "simple" forest life.
25 comments:
1. When Thoreau writes, "simplify, simplify" in the second paragraph, he is reccomending that people do as much as possible to reduce their lives down to knly the neccesities. Society today tells us that nothing is ever good enough and that more is better; Thoreau is telling us to challenge those standards. He also suggests that, by making our lives so complicated and busy, we are in fact making things much harder than they have to be. His suggestion implies that mankind as a whole would be happier if everything were more simple, and that the idea of "progress" is not actual progress at all.
2. Thoreau spends much more time talking about life in modern day society than the seclusion he is experiencing in the woods because there is a lot more going on in towns and cities, and he would run out of things to say about life in the woods pretty quickly. Just he says we need to "reduce other things in proportion", Thoreau reduces his own impression on his current life by writing little abou it. The sheer amount of description Thoreau puts into his paragraphs about life in towns and cities is enough to stress the reader out. By spending more time describing life in society than life in seclusion, Thoreau is physically showing us how much easier life is simplified.
(^ Maddie Swisher)
1. When Thoreau repeats, “Simply, simplify” in paragraph 2, he recommends that people should reduce their complex lives down to include only the necessities. For example, society dictates that people should be as interactive as possible; however, Thoreau says, “Let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand” (par. 2). By giving examples of simplicity and contrasting them with complicated situations, Thoreau shows that people can be happier and lead more fulfilling lives if they lived simply.
2. In his essay, Thoreau spends more time describing the city and town life compared to describing his life in the woods. He might have chosen to do this to illustrate the complexity of city life. By using an abundance of descriptions and pointing out all the excesses of a city, such as newspapers, which he characterizes as “gossip,” he convinces his reader that a simpler life is better (par. 4). Then, Thoreau limits his descriptions of the woods shows how a life in the woods is much simpler. Through his descriptions, Thoreau draws a contrast between a lifestyle in the city and one in the woods.
--Emily L.
1. In the second paragraph when Thoreau stresses to "simplify, simplify," he is hinting that our society works so hard to gain so little (par. 2). We as people are naturally prone to look at details and want everything perfect, in an idealistic manner. However, Thoreau asks why we find that to be so important. He comments that "like pygmies w fight with cranes; it is error upon error, and clout upon clout, and our best virtue has for its occasion a superfluous and evitable wretchedness" (par. 2). People can make life more tolerable through the simplicity of being content with what you are naturally supplied with. Sure we are all greedy and maybe that is a natural state of human beings, Thoreau believes that our longing for more is what makes us feel trapped in a world with less.
2. Thoreau makes his argument through his essay about why he chose to live in the woods, so he writes mostly about the hustle and bustle of city life. He claims he "wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terns" (par. 1). Throughout his essay, he is backing up his argument by giving specific examples to justify each point he just made. The syntax of his writing is interesting because he focuses so heavily on city and town life, but barely on life in the forest; with that said, he is representing how life in the forest does not involve much detail or attention, but it can still function as a home, just as well as a high-maintenance society can.
-Lauren Taniguchi
1. When Thoreau recommends people to “simplify, simplify,” he is referring to the common obsession of complicating life. He attempts to lead people to a better life by saying that the “essential facts of life” (par 1) are the only necessary component for happiness. By repudiating the examples he gives about how humans tend to present details, he claims that reduction or simplifying is the best policy.
2. Thoreau spends more time describing people’s busied lives in towns and cities more than he does describing his life in the woods because he wants to emphasize the flaws of complication. He references the over detailing of trivial matters such as food or news in order to explain to others his views about simplification. If he had merely discussed his life in the woods, many may have thought that it seemed nice; however, few would find an issue with the hurried lives that they live in the city. By choosing to focus on the lives of the common readers, Thoreau illustrates city lives that many people can relate to and find flaws in.
-Rachel Marty
1. When Thoreau commands the reader to "simplify, simplify"(par. 2), he is recommending that people take stock of their lives and strive to cut out those elements that are not essential. He explains that someone with many responsibilities and accounts will lose control of them and quickly lose his grasp on life because he will be distracted. Thoreau advises his readers to simplify the clutter out of their lives so that they can truly live a pure life without being sidetracked by nonessentials.
2. Thoreau concentrates his writing on hectic city life because he wants to draw a contrast between such a meaningless life and one with deeper meaning amongst nature. He draws his readers into his arguement, pointing out elements of their own lives that seem normal and routine, and then attacks them for being just that. Thoreau criticizes mindless entertainment as "petty pleasures"(par. 6) and argues that we live in the "dark unfathomed mammoth cave of the world"(par. 3). When his readers recognize elements of their own lives in Thoreau's arguement, they will take notice of what he is saying and pay more attention to his thesis.
Katherine Mellis
1. When Thoreau tells us to "simplify, simplify" in paragraph two, he is trying to tell his readers to reduce their life to their necessities. Our current society is one that idealizes a busy schedule and that more is better. However, Thoreau asks, is that really the best idea? If we continue to make our lives full and busy, we will never be happy. Instead, a simple life would actually be much more fulfilling.
2. Throughout his essay, Thoreau chooses to write more on his life in modern day cities rather than his life in the forest. By doing this, Thoreau emphasizes the complexity and pointlessness of cities. He needs so much more space to write about how busy his life was there, which is the exact opposite of what he is advocating. He writes little on his life in the woods, perhaps because it was simple. This simplicity shows how pleasurable it must have been to lead a worth living. In the woods, he can "live deliberately" and only with "the essential facts of life" (par. 1). On the other hand, the normal life in towns and cities is one that requires pages to describe and "lives to fast," which is not how he wants to experience life (par. 2). Furthermore, he does this to offer the reader only a tantalizing glimpse. In order for anyone to understand him, they must experience life in the woods for themselves.
-Carole Daniel
1. When Thoreau says, "Simplify, simplify" in paragraph two, he is saying that people in society need to reduce the complexity of their lives to only the key basics and necessities. He believes that having to spend so much time on the different and unnecessary aspects of life takes away time which could be used to do something more productive in his eyes. He criticizes society, saying that "the nation itself, with all its so-called internal improvements... is just such an unwieldy and overgrown establishment" (par. 2). Thoreau values simplicity over complexity because he believes that only the core essentials are needed to carry out good lives.
2. Thoreau spends more time talking about the normal daily life in towns and cities than his own life in the woods in order to emphasize the complications of what is seen to be as a standard style of living. In addition, by possibly avoiding faults that could be found in his own way of life, he constantly keeps the readers attention focused on their own lives and the flaws that are in it without considering the possible flaws in the only other option ( fallacy of false dichotomy). Thus, Thoreau attempts to convince the public if his own lifestyle by knocking down the choice of society, making it appear that there are only two choices.
1. When Thoreau says, “Simplify, simplify” (par. 2) he is advising that people should reduce their lives to only the necessities. Although it is a norm in today’s society to have busy and complex lives, Thoreau argues that those people are making their lives more complicated and distracting than need be. Thoreau recommends that people discard nonessential parts of their schedules in order to live a simple and happy life.
2. In order to further his argument that daily life in towns in overly hectic and complex, Thoreau spends much more time thoroughly describing the flaws of city life than his life in the woods. Because many people haven’t experienced complete seclusion from society in the woods, they wouldn’t have been able to relate with Thoreau if he only discussed the positive aspects of solitude. Instead, he inundates the reader with negative descriptions of city life to convince the reader that simple life in the woods is better.
--Angela Gradiska
1. When Thoreau writes "Simplify, simplify" (par. 2), he recommends the reader to live a simple life. In the second paragraph, Thoreau explains the many unnecessary aspects of human life. He claims that human life is "ruined by luxury and heedless expense" (par. 2). Essentially, people believe that they need everything that is up-to-date or "today," whether or not they actually need it. Thoreau declares that people should live "in a rigid economy, a stern and more than Spartan simplicity of life and elevation of purpose" (par. 2).
2. Thoreau might have chosen to describe more of life in towns and cities because his readers, on the whole, live towns and cities instead of the woods. By describing in detail the extravagance of the urban life to urban readers, Thoreau can effectively spread his message to live a simple life.
Derek Lee
1. When Thoreau writes, " simplify, simplify" in the second paragraph, he calls on the reader to reduce their current life style with all the luxuries and excessive materials. He is emphasizing his point that people need to drastically reduce what they have in life and move back to the bare necessities. He believes that life has gotten to a point in which it has gotten so complex and complicated that life will become harder to enjoy. His argument is to simplify life.
2. He choses to talk about the town and city life more then his wood experience because its makes for a much better structure for a persuasive essay. The reader can relate in their own lives with towns and cities. It helps his argument that he can point out the problems with that type of life because the reader experiences it everyday. It also in come ways overwhelm the reader with detail after detail. Then by comparing it to his woodland experience it makes his life choice more well simple.
Matthew Dawes
1. When Thoreau reiterates ‘Simplify,’ he comments that most people have too much going on in their lives that they can’t manage, so he recommends for people to simplify their lives. He gives as example of eating fewer meals and the German Confederation being to widespread to control under one ruler as a metaphor to say how we all try to do too many things at the same time in life, instead of focusing on one or a few things. Although he says that the federation gets internal improvements now and then, like how we buy more gadgets for our own leisure or buy new clothes to wear, they don’t really help for they are all “external and superficial” (par.2).
2. Thoreau elaborates on his life in the city rather than in the woods to show that many of our lives are much more complex and busy than they need to be. In par 4, he explains how he could do without a post-office, for ‘there are very few important communications made through it’ (par. 4). He condemns the post office saying that it is unnecessary because you are paying for someone else’s thoughts or a memory. In addition, he says that the newspapers are like ‘gossip’, implying that we have so many things that are really unnecessary in life. Thoreau elaborates on the city life to contrast with the simplicity of life in the woods.
Steph Lim
1. WHen THoreau says "simplify", he is suggesting that the life people live currently are much too complicated and unnecessary. Instead, we should reflect on our lives and find what is really crucial and what is not needed at all. Then, we should discard what is not needed so we live lives that are simple, not busy, and happy. That perfect life should emulate what it is like to live in the forest/wilderness.
2. If Thoreau describes more to the life he lives in the woods, there is little for us, the reader, to relate to. Instead, he develops his point by describing the life that most of us live. As a result, we can relate everything he says to something in our own personal life. THen when Thoreau ridicules and points out the weaknesses of that certain aspect of our life, it is much more powerful on the reader. By choosing to elaborate more on the life of everyday people than his own secluded life, Thoreau is able to make his point stronger to the reader.
-THE TUAN
1. Thoreau writes, "simplify, simplify" in regards to what he wishes for the lives of his readers. His entire essay is supposed to caution us against over complicating our lives, asking, "Why should we live with such hurry and waste of life?" (3). Thoreau presses the idea that a life should be simplified to only the necessities, and that a overly complex life pales in comparison to a simple one.
2. Thoreau writes far more about the complicated, busy, industrial, city life that he cautions against for two reasons: first, there is a lot for Thoreau to address since it is a subject he is passionate about and wants desperately to warn others against, and second, stylistically, the description of city life is more chaotic and busy and complicated, which pulls off the image that Thoreau is trying to show. By writing far less about the simple life with nature that he endorses, he highlights its simplicity that he values so much.
1) Thoreau, in telling his audience to "simplify, simplify", is effectively recommending discarding all of the pointless opulences of life and only paying heed to what is absolutely necessary. Thoreau points out examples of many unecessary tasks with which his 19th century peers occupied themselves, some of which are applicable today. In pointing out the ridiculousness of these chores, Thoreau shows that we waste our time with idle tasks and that we should try to eliminate as many as possible from our lives.
2) Thoreau understands that the woods are a distant, unreal scenario to his audience. He understands that in order for his audience to relate his philosophy to their lives, they will have to be given examples of what is wrong with their lives. Thoreau identifies with his audience by using examples readily applicable to their lives.
1. Like it has been said much before, I agree that Thoreau writes, "simplify, simplify" in the second paragraph to stress how people waste time making life more difficult and more confusing than it needs to be. When people make everything so complicated, they are no longer living their lives, but forcing their lives to be a certain way thats harder. Simplifying is the best thing people can do to achieve true happiness.
2. He would do this to prove that people make life much more complicated. City life has its benefits, but at the same time is very complex--much more than it needs to be. He describes the woods less because the woods are a simple place to live in comparison to cities, so Thoreau tries to prove his point that happiness is found in simplicity.
shayma
By charging the reader to "simplify, simplify", Thoreau is making the point that modern lives are overly complicated with meaningless taks that "fritter away" the precious moments we have. By simplifying our lives and reducing these non-essentails we will be able to purify our life and get to the true essence of what living is.
Thoreau goes more extensivel into describing hte city life to illuminate just how over complicated it is in contrast with the pure simplicity of the woods. For him, the woods are a very idealic and uncompromised place, so going into to much details would spoil the almost supernatural purity and mystery. Whereas the towns and cities are littered with complications that endlessly stack up which is reflected in his extensive description of their adulteration of life.
-Kelsey
1. When Thoreau writes "Simplify, simplify", he is advising people to take away the clutter in life that people create through their detailed organization. He is suggesting doing less to avoid the stress that follows paying attention to minute details in one's daily affairs. With less complications, the events that do occur become more meaningful and thus produce better results, such as homework or chores.
2. He probably chose to do this way of writing the essay first of all because he had very little real experience with only nature surrounding him, so he has little experience compared to for example Emerson. As well, if he talks about the city more, his audience will recognize the situations he discusses. With these points, people will think about how their life would be different if we did not run when the bell rang and instead calmly walked or did not listen to the sound. More people will read his writing if he sounds sane as well rather than a savage as many people would inherently associate with a person of nature.
1. Thoreau writes "Simplify, simplify" to tell the reader to try to minimalize everything that they do in the day. He wants less of everything, even food as he gives the example of simplifying how much we eat in the day by cutting down what we eat to one meal. He also says that if we simplify one thing, it affects many other aspects of life thus giving you more time and reducing the "clutter" in your life which is "external" and "superficial" and "overgrown." He adds on to the food example by saying how 100 dishes becomes five by eating only once. Overall, Thoreau cannt stress enough about how people need to keep everything as basic as possible for your own sake as well as the sake of others.
2. Thoreau talks about the city more because the city is more comlpex than the woods. The woods are simple, basic, straight-foreward. The city, on the other hand, is a mess of over-complicated jobs, information, and lives collaborating in a disjointed mass. In the city, the train stops for no one while in the woods, it waits for anyone to come along. The whole city life is much more complex and harder to explain than the woods which is why Thoreau talks about it more in his essay.
1.When Thereau advises the reader to "simplify, simplify"(paragraph 2), he asserts his argument criticizing the unnecessary complexity of societies. He wants people to slow down and instead of worrying and thinking about their "hundred" or a "thousand" "affairs" (2). Instead he wants people to slow down and enjoy the simpler things. He questions "why should we live with a such a hurry and wate of life?" (3). He advises people to derive pleasure for the common things and ignore their deluded desires for fulfilling unmeaningful tasks.
2. Essentially, he describes how people should not act. His audience targets city dwellers and townsman, and thus, he draws on city experience in hopes of resonating with the readers' city experiences. If he dedicated the majority of the essay to simply the nature life, he would not be able to establish a connection with the audience as they have nothing to relate to.
In addition, he rips apart the city in order to emphasize that it's not that the goodness of nature is the focal idea of his essay. Instead, his primary purpose is to describe why city life is so terrible and why people need to change.
Rohan Puri
1. Thoreau, like so many public figures today, is telling us to reduce our consumption. Though it isn't modern in the sense that we're talking about ending our dependence on foreign oil, but he means that we (Americans) over complicate things. He wants us to stop eating three meals a day "if it be necessary to eat but one" (para. 2). Thoreau considers man to be disorganized and to have lost sight of what the real values and goals of life are -- he thinks that people have become so concerned with trivial matters and their lives in such excessive quantities that nobody really understands life anymore. He urges people to "simplify, simplify" and to get back on track to a good, real life.
2. Town life is far more complex, so it deserves more description. The thesis of this passage (and at least from what I've gleaned, of the whole book) is that one needs to immerse oneself in the simplicity of nature and the necessities of life. By only focusing on the necessary nuances of wood-life, Thoreau drives his point home: The city is far more complex and over the top; the only way to reach true happiness and understanding is in the simplicity of nature.
see above,
Simon Hochberg
1. Thoreau points out the pollution in man's convoluted life by repeatedly calling for simplification. Assuming that the frenetic audience will take an obstinate position towards his claim, Thoreau must repeat his call to action so that the readers do not misinterpret his hard-to-accept argument. Also, because his argument essentially attacks standard living, Thoreau must take pains to point out many common examples to clarify his argument since an attack on normal, unnoticed habits will probably face much opposition.
2. Thoreau opens his essay by providing credibility; a man who has wandered into nature in search for a way to live life to the fullest must certainly be qualified to preach his findings. However, rambling about pristine life in a forest will likely not convince his audience to accept his claim. Thoreau's must keep his focus on the flaws of society, not the beauty of nature and solitude, because his audience is familiar with the former, not the latter. Though Thoreau could ask his audience to go out in a forest to experience true life, he knows that he must first disillusion his readers. They will not take his claim seriously if they feel that their own lives are just fine, so Thoreau must focus on why their lives are corrupt to drive his point home.
--Sarina Bhandari, A period
1. Within the second paragraph, the suggestion of "simply, simplify" is a recommendation that everyone should get rid of the unnecessary aspects of their lives. Thoreau believes that the current "modern" standards are broken and that by always having to keep up with modern technology, we are less happy than we could be.
2. MOre time is given to the discussion of City life for two reasons. First, a lot more goes on in the city then does in the forest. Second, it could be a metaphor Thoreau is using to show the complexity of city life by describing it in much greater detail than the "simple" forest life.
He's a pie eating hypocrite
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