Thoreau Rhetorical Analysis Henry David

Thoreau Rhetorical Analysis

Henry David Thoreau's essay entitled Walking is a short essay about a walk and the importance walking plays in the human psyche. The essay itself is told as a spiritual meandering as Thoreau takes a walk through the woods surrounding his house. The essay's central argument is in favor of experiencing nature and preserving the environment. Thoreau's belief that, due to the evolution of society, society was becoming more and more disconnected with nature. In order to preserve this important bond, people had to make an effort to maintain their understanding of nature. This could not happen by walking in malls or through urban streets. Instead it must happen by making an effort to leave civilization, find a woods, and spend, according to Thoreau, three to four hours walking through the woods.

The subject of the text of Walking is Thoreau himself, as it is written in the first person narrative and is presented as a stream of conscious narrative of Thoreau's thoughts as he goes for a walk. As he walks he tells the reader his thoughts on the subject of walking and, most importantly, the role that walking plays in his life. According to Thoreau, the subject of the text is nature and the preservation of it.

I wish to speak a word for Nature," he says. "For absolute freedom and wildness." Thus, Thoreau's argument is essentially for the preservation of nature. Thoreau then makes this argument by using the act of walking to explain his reasoning for preserving nature. Essentially, what Thoreau argues is that one cannot understand the importance of preserving nature unless they understand the art of walking, or the important role that walking plays in human life. "I have met with but one or two persons in the course of my life who understood the art of Walking, that is, of taking walks," Thoreau says, "who had a genius, so to speak, for sauntering."

Thoreau compares the importance of taking a walk in the woods to the historic act of a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. The reason people made a pilgrimage was to stay connected to their religion. Likewise, the reason people must go for walks in the woods is to stay connected to their nature. However, according to Thoreau, as modern connivances evolve, people become removed from nature. This removal from nature therefore causes people to not understand the importance of preserving it. Without preserving nature, people will loose their historic connection to nature and thus fail to truly understand their existence. To prevent this, Thoreau argues that everyone must learn the true art of walking.