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Letter To Emerson Rhetorical Analysis

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Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson were both influential writers of the transcendentalist movement in the early to mid-nineteenth century. Before moving into solitude, Thoreau had experienced two tragic deaths of close ones: his brother John in 1842, and two weeks later, Emerson’s son, Waldo, who Thoreau had deeply cared about. After not writing for two months following these deaths, Thoreau finally wrote a letter to Emerson in which he attempts to comfort Emerson by connecting himself to Emerson through their similar transcendental beliefs that emotional and spiritual rebirth is a significant function of nature’s glory, that nature is all-powerful so humans should base their lives off of it, and that having life does not mean one …show more content…
Henry David Thoreau uses rhetorical questions throughout his letter to remind Emerson of the simplistic and accepting ways of nature. For example, Thoreau asks “And after all what portion of this so serene and living nature can be said to be alive?” and “Dead trees - sere leaves - dried grass and herbs - are not these a good part of our life?” In asking these questions, Thoreau is able to get Emerson to begin to question his idea of life and death. Because nature is constantly decaying and blooming with the seasons, is any part of it truly alive? If not, what do truly living and death mean? And if nature is dying, why would it be considered as a good part of life? Emerson would have initially asked these types of questions. However, Thoreau is able to teach Emerson to believe that death is a part of life and natural, and that it is not all bad, for it gives room for new life. Thoreau more clearly expresses this idea when he asks “will not the land be in good heart because the crops die down from year to year?” The use of this rhetorical question allows …show more content…
For example, Thoreau says that the nature around him “is the same nature that Burns and Milton loved - the same life that Shakespeare and Milton lived.” In referencing these well-known writers of different times, Thoreau is able to connect Emerson to them and show him that nature’s cycle is continuous through time; death makes way for life, which will begin to wither away in time too. Nature does not change because of death, instead it continues to live on, uninterrupted. This current nature that Thoreau writes about is the same nature that great writers and poets experienced, wrote about, and lived with. Thoreau is trying to convince Emerson that he should not mourn the death of his son, but rather just continue living his life to the fullest. Death should not put one’s life on hold, because death does not wait. If one lets death define their life with sorrow, they cannot truly live, which completely goes against the major transcendentalist idea of living one’s life the way they want to, without outside influences changing the way one does so. In addition, Thoreau concludes his letter with an allusion to the Scottish poet John Bellenden through citing one of his poems. One particular line, “the more distress, the more

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