美国文学_梭罗Thoreau.pptVIP

Henry David Thoreau 1. Born in Concord, Massachusetts, July 12, 1817 2. In Harvard College in 1833, and graduated in 1837 as one of the honor students 3. Opened a school, where he taught with his brother John 4. 1839, made a trip on Concord and Merrimack rivers with John 5. Helped Emerson edit The Dial and tutored Emerson’s children 6. In March 1845 ( when 28)began to work on a cabin at Walden Pond, and on July 4, moved into the Walden cabin 7. 1846, arrested for nonpayment of poll tax 8. Published Walden on August 9, 1856 Major Works Style Influences A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (1849) Civil Disobedience (1849） Walden; or, Life in the Woods (1854) A Plea for Captain John Brown (1859) Excursions (1863) The Maine Woods (1864) Cape Cod (1865) A Yankee in Canada (1866) (Thoreau’s style is) more primitive and Homeric than any American, his style of thinking was robust, racy, as if Nature herself had built his sentences and seasoned the sense of his paragraphs with his own vigor and salubrity. Nothing can be spared from them; there is nothing superfluous; all is compact, concrete, as Nature is. — Bronson Alcott Lucid, simply wrought, and unpretentious Told by a credible and forthright first person narrator who seeks to give the truth of his experience at Walden Pond As innovative and free as his social thought; A private writer hungering for a large audience; Prophetic Voice A subtle punster and ironist Using poetic device in a casual and easygoing tone Allusion Direct forceful sentence Conversational in tone Humor Proverbial expressions Brief tales, fables and allegories Metaphors One of the most influential figures in American thought and literature both for the modern clarity of his prose style and the prescience of his views on nature and politics American’s greatest prose stylist, naturalist, pioneer ecologist, conservationist, visionary, and humanist. One of the first American supporters of Charles Darwin’s theory of ev