Literature

What news How much more important to know what that is which was never old (Thoreau 3). Mr. Henry David Thoreaus used this exclamation to remind people that there is more to life than what we know and experience. Thoreaus tries to make people understand the reasons why he left all the good life in the city to go and live in the wilderness. He claims that
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived (1)
Thoreaus notes that if only people could live a simple life without the complications of civilization would then they find time to figure out the purpose of life. He uses metaphor and imagery when he refers life as the chopping and raging sea of civilized life. He uses this metaphor as an indicator of the hardships he encountered in the world as he tried to cope with the numerous activities involved. He points the negative impacts the media has brought on people without their notice. He goes ahead and analyses all the life demeaning scenes experienced in the streets on daily basis.

One man robbed, or murdered, or killed by accident, or one house burned, or one vessel wrecked, or one steamboat blown up, or one cow run over on the Western Railroad, or one mad dog killed, or one lot of grasshoppers in the winter (2).

Thoreau uses rhetorical devices to bring out a clear picture of his theme in Why I Went to the Woods. He wanted people to be able to interpreate and understand the meaning of life from the natural way like the ancient way of life of the Spartans. The Spartans worried only for the important aspects of life that is the basic needs, love and security for one another.