On the Rhetorical Techniques in Walden

1、on the rhetorical techniques in walden论瓦尔登湖中的修辞技巧abstracthenry david thoreau, an important writer in american literature in the 19th century, was also a representative of transcendentalism. he advocated that people should disentangle themselves from the complicated life and return to nature. thoreau

2、 put all his love of nature and his thinking of life into his great work walden. walden, which was the classical sample of american prose, was called “the green bible”. its unique language style attracts lots of readers. thoreau combined the homey folksy talk with erudite allusions, creating a tone

3、that was both casual and majestic. in this book, several kinds of rhetorical techniques included the analogy, personification, irony, humor and symbolism make the work not only more outstanding in its word style, but also more precious in the literary value. this paper will centre on those technique

4、s in this great prose with the method of example analysis, combining the creating background of walden, and elaborate the unique meanings of those techniques. through these examples, we will see thoreaus great natural and environmental viewpoints clearly.key words: walden; thoreau; rhetorical techni

5、ques 论瓦尔登湖中的修辞技巧内容摘要亨利戴维梭罗是19世纪美国文学史上一位重要的作家，也是先验主义的代表。他提倡人们应从复杂的生活中解脱出来回归自然。梭罗把对自然的热爱和对生活感悟全部融进他的伟大作品瓦尔登湖中。瓦尔登湖作为美国散文的经典之作，被称为“绿色圣经”。它独特的语言风格吸引了无数读者。梭罗将居家式的亲切语言和旁征博引结合起来，创造了一种既随意又庄重的风格。在这本作品中，比喻、拟人、讽刺、幽默和象征等修辞手法的运用不仅使作品在语言风格上更加突出，也使其在文学价值方面更加弥足珍贵。本文将以作品中使用的修辞手法为中心，采用释例法并结合瓦尔登湖的写作背景，阐述这些手法的独特含义。通过这些

6、例子我们会清楚地了解梭罗伟大的自然观和环境观。关键词：瓦尔登湖；梭罗；修辞手法on the rhetorical techniques in waldenthesis statementthe rhetorical techniques included the analogy, personification, satire, humor, and symbolism are used in walden which make the language more vivid, elegant and profound.outlineintroductionthe rhetorical tec

7、hniques in waldena. analogy1. examples of analogy2. advantages b. personification 1. examples of personification2. advantages c. satire and humor1. examples of satire and humor2. advantages d. symbolism1. examples of symbolism2. advantages conclusion. introductionhenry david thoreau was born in conc

8、ord, massachusetts on july 12, 1817. he was the third child in his family. the thoreaus were poor, making the living by the modest production of homemade pencils. despite financial constraints, thoreau received a top-notch education. after graduating from harvard in 1837, he became a teacher in the

9、local grammar school. because he refused to punish the misbehaving purples, he resigned. at that period, he knew emerson, the creator of transcendentalism, and built a great friendship with him, which eventually would create the most influence on thoreaus life. thoreau also became a representative o

10、f transcendentalism under emersons influence. his writing activities deepened as his friendship with emerson developed and as he was exposed to the transcendentalist movement (吴伟仁 171).in july, 1845, thoreau decided to move into the woods. he built a hut on emersons land at walden pond. in 1845, thr

11、ough the hard struggles, america finally set up an independent country. then it started strongly to develop its industry. since a great quantity of economic activities were carried out, the matter wealth of society continuously accumulated. but on the other hand, the spiritual wealth and the ethical

12、 level of people sharply reduced and degenerated. besides, americans lived a comfortable life because of the large-scale exploit of the nature. however, the former peaceful country life also disappeared with the beautiful landscape (凌翔 48). thoreau opposed peoples reckless destruction of nature. he

13、thought those destructions would be harmful to human finally. living in walden more than two years, thoreau continuously found out the beauty of nature. he was surprised by the vigorous and prosperous lives of walden. through the simple and self-reliance life, he got enough happiness as he accepted

14、the baptism of nature. walden summed up his experiences about this enjoyable life, which was first published in 1854. this book that later becomes the classical sample of prose had not gotten enough attention and acceptation at that time. thoreau narrated it in the first person. sometimes he seemed

15、to be writing a diary, recording the days events; other times he widened his scope to include the whole cosmos and all eternity.walden mainly expresses a critique of consumerism and capitalism. it praises the importance of self-reliance. he does not perceive nature as a dead and passive object of co

16、nquest and exploitation. the whole book composes of 19 chapters. each chapter is independent from each other. in fact, they form a systematic whole. this paper will mainly discuss the rhetorical techniques in walden, analyzing the importance of them. and it provides readers a unique angle of views,

17、letting them enter the walden world to find its great secret.rhetorical techniquesa. analogy1. examples of analogyalong the walden lakeside, the natural scenery is elegant. closely getting in touch with nature, thoreau cant help singing the praise of the beauty of it. he uses very influent words and

18、 rich imagination to show the peace and beauty of nature to people. the beauty of it is true and simple.meanwhile, thoreau is thinking. he changes his thought into the language, using the vivid analogies as the bridge, so that his viewpoints can be easily accepted by people.“let us spend one day as

19、deliberately as nature, and not be thrown off the track by every nutshell and mosquitos wing that falls on the trails”(thoreau 62). in this sentence, thoreau compares the peoples desire and lure to the nutshell and mosquitos wing, which hints his attitudes towards the true life. he thinks it is mean

20、ingless to pursue the tiny satisfaction of the matter in life. and people should determine to make a day of it.“time is but stream. i go a-fishing in. i drink at it, but while i drink i see the sandy bottom and detect how shallow it is. its thin current slides away, but eternity remains” (thoreau 62

21、). thoreau considers that time is a stream which moves continuously. he is free from time as well as from matter, announcing grandiosely that time just is a river in which he goes fishing. he does not view himself as the slave of time, rather he makes it seem as though he is choosing to participate

22、in the flow of time whenever and however he chooses, like a god living in eternity.besides, thoreau compares the “realometer”, a spin-off of the nilometer, which is a device used to measure the depth of the river nile, to our capacity to choose reality. he encourages us to wade through the muck that

23、 constitutes our everyday lives until we come to a firm place which we can call reality. when we create and claim this reality, all the other “news” of the world shrinks immediately to insignificances.“the oldest egyptian or hindoo philosopher raised a corner of the veil from the statue of the divin

24、ity; and still the trembling robe remains raised, and i gaze upon as fresh a glory as he did” (thoreau 64). about the reading, he compares it, following ancient egyptian or hindu philosophers, to “raising the veil from the statue of divinity”. this analogy is a little bit ironic. but one of the many

25、 delightful pursuits in which thoreau is able to indulge, having renounced a big job and a big mortgage, is reading. it is certain that reading is a chief pastime of him.“the noblest written words are commonly as far behind or above the fleeting spoken language as the firmament with its stars is beh

26、ind the clouds” (thoreau 66). in this sentence, thoreau praises the written words like the stars which are bright and mysterious. only when we devote ourselves to reading and researching, we may realize what are behind the words. so thoreau says reading is a noble intellectual exercise.the train cha

27、nges the peoples lives in concord. it flies over the country, bringing a lot of goods. “i looked up from my book and see some tall pine, hewn on far northern hills, which has winged it way, shot like an arrow through the township within ten minutes” (thoreau 82). firstly, thoreau compares the pine t

28、o the bird which has wings to fly. secondly, he considers it as the arrow. these two analogies reflect thoreaus discontent with the humans exploit of the nature. the development of nature is fast and brutal.compared with the noise that the train caused, the sound of the cow seems sweeter which thore

29、au mistakes it for the voice of certain minstrels. we can see that thoreau really dislikes the train which interrupts his tranquility. he appreciates the sound of the cow as well as the singing of the minstrels. these two kinds of sounds are natural and peaceful.thoreau plants two and a half acres o

30、f beans. he enjoys planting. he compares farming to art as well, repeatedly referring to the music produced by his hoe as it strikes the earth. “when my hoe tinkled against the stones, that music echoed to the woods and the sky” (thoreau 126). thoreau often leans on his hoe and enjoys the inexhausti

31、ble entertainment of his environment, the sights and sounds of nature. he describes himself as “dabbling like a plastic artist in the dewy and crumbling sand” (李津 106). thoreau makes agriculture into a symbolic and transcendent activity. it has a contrast and imperishable moral, as if it were an exe

32、rcise in morality rather than a pursuit of material sustenance (myerson 132). similarly, when thoreau refers to his hard work in hoeing the fields, he compares himself to the greek mythological figure of a north african giant who wrestled with hercules.in the descriptions of the scenery of the pond,

33、 thoreau uses a lot of analogies to show his sign with feeling.and at such a time, being an its surface, and looking with divided vision, so as to see the reflection, i have discerned a matchless and indescribable light blue, such as watered or changeable silks and sword blades suggest. it is a vitr

34、eous greenish blue, as i remembered it, liked those patches of the winter sky seen through cloud vistas in the west before sundown. yet single glass of its water held up to the light is as an equal quantity of air. (thoreau 152)those descriptions are meticulous. the color of the water appears differ

35、ent kinds of blue from the different angles. thoreau says the color blue looks like the watered or changeable silk which has a bright and rich color. it is also like the sword blade shining with a cold light. but actually, the water is colorless as an equal quantity of air. the changeable colors of

36、the water are caused by the reflective quantity of the water, so that thoreau compares the pure walden pond to a bright mirror. its fascinating glassy surface reflects heaven, and it is a perfect forest mirror of the sky above. for this reason, it reflects the color of the sky. with the sunlight, it

37、 appears a little darker blue than the sky itself. this feature makes a mystery of the pond. it seems that the transparent water is covered with a blue veil (武健 5). so people will believe that the pond is deep and bottomless. “a lake is the landscapes most beautiful and expressive feature, it is ear

38、ths eye. the fluviatile trees next the shore are the slender eyelashes which fringe it, and the wooded hills and cliffs around are its overhanging brows” (thoreau 162). this sentence describes the pretty pond and beautiful landscape around it. they form a shape of eye. thoreau imagines the pond like

39、 the earths eye. the eye is bright and other things are its decorations. this analogy is vivid which gives people a deep expression of the walden pond. and the pond as the earths eye is also the window of the earth soul which is pure and beautiful. the words show his love of the pond to us. when you

40、 look at the pretty eye, you will also be moved by its purity. when thoreau finds himself surrounded by myriads of small perch, he uses great analogy to describe their movement in the water.i seemed to be floating through the air as in a balloon, and their swimming impressed me as a kind of fighting

41、 for hovering, as if they were a compact flock of birds passing just beneath my level on the right or left, their fins, like sails, set all around them, they made a sudden splash and ripping with their tails, as if one had struck the water with a bough, and instantly took refuge in the depths. (thor

42、eau 166)in this paragraph, we can see thoreau is fully attracted by the small perch. the lovely little perch live a happy and peaceful life. they grow freely in the transparent and seemingly bottomless water. they swim lightly, freely, as the birds fly in sky. thoreau admires their freedom and has a

43、 great interest to watch them. and he is moved by their vivid lives.“they are great crystals on the surface of the earth; if they were permanently congealedthey would perchance like precious stones to adorn the hands of emperors” (thoreau 174). when thoreau praises the walden pond, he also mentions

44、another pond called white pond. in many aspects, however, it is a lesser twin of walden. it has the same stony shore, and its waters are of the same hue. thoreau compares the two ponds to the precious stones. he wants to praise their rare and transparent qualities. he says: “they are too pure to hav

45、e a market value; they contain no muck. how much more beautiful than our lives, how much more transparent than our characters, are they” (thoreau 176)! however, few people appreciate this kind of beauty and treasure. they ignore the nature. thoreau wants to appeal people to value the nature which wi

46、ll secure us and our successors forever.sometimes, thoreau likes to have a walk in the forest. there are many different kinds of plants. they live together and show a vigorous beauty. “the usnea lichen hangs in festoons from the white spruce trees, and toadstools, round tables of the swamp godsthe r

47、ed alder berry grows like eyes of imps” (thoreau 178). this description attracts people to be eager to see the woods to experience the excellent world by themselves. the pine grooves stand like straight temples; the usnea lichen hangs like the festoon; the most tasty red alder berries look like the

48、bright eyes of imps. it is not strange that thoreau also forgets his home because of such a wonderful wood.2. advantagesanalogy is correspondence in some aspects between things that are being compared. it can change the abstract thing into a concrete one and make the recondite deep truth become an e

49、asy one. so people can easily understand the real meaning behind the analogy. thoreau experiences the nature world. he watches the lives in it and makes a detailed description using his fantastic writing skills. the analogy is particularly vivid and elegant. for example, he imagines the pond an eye

50、of the earth. he compares the cliffs and hills around it to the overhanging brows, but the fluviatile trees are the eyelashes (曾呢娟，徐雪梅 65). it makes the readers get a deep and clear impression about them. besides, he says weeding the fields is a long war against the trojans. such wonderful analogies

51、 in the book are too numerous to mention. but we can see clearly that thoreaus analogies are almost about the lives. in his eyes, all things on earth are equally independent and full of thinking. the human beings should cherish and respect the verdurous nature. because of the analogy, the language i

52、n walden has a great influence. and the whole book is full of interesting and graphic figure.b. personification 1. examples of personificationthoreau upholds protecting nature, and venerates all the lives in the world. he uses the language of personification to portray the animals sound and behavior

53、s which embody thoreaus love of nature.“commerce is unexpectedly confident and serene, alert, adventurous, and unwearied” (thoreau 80). during the economic development, commerce gradually becomes prosperous. it appears a brave pioneer who is confident and adventurous to cultivate this country. even

54、though, thoreau lives in walden alone. the train rattles past his house. he has to pay attention to the commerce, using an alert eye to watch the developing enterprise. he thinks commerce has the peoples characters, so that people like to advance its development. but at the same time, the progress o

55、f it which will get the morality to go backward.“regularly at half-past seven, in one part of the summer, the whip-poor-wills chanted their vespers for half an hour, sitting on a stump by my door” (thoreau 84). the whip-poor-wills look like the follower of religion. they sing in regular time to expr

56、ess their loyalty to god. we will think of the people who always pray day and night. “sometimes again the lowing of some disconsolate cow in a distant barn-yard” (thoreau 86). the cow looks some disconsolate. maybe it feels lonely in at night. “all the shore rang with the trump of bullfrogs, trying

57、to sing a catch in their stygian lake, who would fain keep up the hilarious rules of their old festal tables, mocking at mirth and sweet intoxication never comes to drown the memory of the past” (thoreau 86). the bullfrogs seem like the ancient wine-bibbers who have a lot of memory of past. their im

58、ageries look funning and cute. “while i enjoy the friendship of seasons, i trust that nothing can make life a burden to me” (thoreau 91). thoreau compares seasons to his friends and he is enjoyable with its friendship. even every little pine needle expands and swells with sympathy and befriends him.

59、 “.and such sympathy have they ever with our race, that all nature would be affected, and the suns brightness fade, and the winds would sign humanely, and the clouds rain tears, and the woods shed their leaves and put on mourning in mid-summer, of any man should ever for a just cause grieve” (thoreau 100). everything in nature has its own