vondy's blog

I think it’s pretty cool what Dillard did in her essay. I like the kill showing of the kill or be killed to nature through her examples of the things she sees, as well as the things she remembers seeing. I was surprised to find out that there actually is a bug called “giant water bug� but it kind of reminds me of a spider how they suck the juice out of their victims. It’s true that things in nature are happening all the time, mostly without anyone noticing it. Once my friends saw a three way among some squirrels which I thought was pretty funny to hear about. I enjoy her use of stream of thought to tell about past occurrences that deal with everything that is happening around her. Everything kind of reminds her of something else like it’s all connected. Dillard seems like a bright lady by putting some reasoning or facts after the frog incident about how most carnivorous eat their prey alive. She really likes to jump around from different ideas that she has; for example when she starts talking about how cruelty is a mystery, and three sentences later starts talking about the mocking bird that jumps off the roof and just pulls up right before he hits the ground. She really has an usual perception of the environment around her. When the clouds would block out the sun and she couldn’t see anything unless the sun was on it. Like it would appear out of no where. I’m not sure if she was trying to get the reader think of something more than just magician symbolism or if it was to try and get the reader to think of the importance of nature. I really don’t think she was going for the whole sun thing but, I know in Minnesota there aren’t nearly as many animals around once winter begins, all the animals abandon the area or else hibernate for the winter.

giant water bug link
http://www.pca.state.mn.us/kids/c-october.html

Posted by Andrew Walter at 9:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

There are many reason’s why Thoreau chooses the woods for his “experiment�. Thoreau states that he went to the wood to “live deliberately[,]� to suck out the “marrow of life�, and to be able reduce it to the it’s “lowest term� and then publish his findings to the world. I believe that he also went to the woods to be become removed from the common restraints of living in the village. In the woods, he has just his basic needs: food, shelter, warmth and possible one more need not yet known. While in the village, Thoreau has his responsibilities to the village, to his friends, and to his family. By leaving to the wood’s he has escaped his responsibilities tied with the village, but also took on the task of learning the meaning of life, then publishing it. I also believe that he left for the wood to peace to concentrate on deep, “classic� books and to fully understand them to allow himself to be able to analyze the life around himself to it’s fullest meaning. I think in the section Reading Thoreau is making a reference to the society of his time and even ours about how the works written in Greek and Latin during the middle ages and the people could speak but could not read it for it was in a different Greek and Latin. Last, I believe that he believes he was on the level of English professors, but there was no college in the village, therefore there was nobody for him to relate to.
I think the kind of world that Thoreau wanted to live in is one very limited technology, everyone sitting around a camp fire telling stories then analyzing the story. Thoreau said that people should wake up naturally, also he escaped from technology by going to the woods. During his time spent in the woods, he makes no reference to a technology. Thoreau said that he wants “noble villages� instead of noble men imply that he wants everyone to be literary. One problem he pointed out about being literary is that there is nobody to talk to about books. If Thoreau was alive right now, he would be even more disappointed than in his time.
I believe that Thoreau went into the woods to find out what life is, to live a simpler way, to catch up on reading, to get away from illiteracy, and to avoid technology.

Posted by Andrew Walter at 10:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)