How is Thoreau’s claim both true and untrue?
How does Thoreau's claim and this chapter's reference to fire (another recurrent figure in the book) shape your perceptions of what the novel says about life and the world?
Monday, July 17, 2023
Chapter 40: “Wild and Free”
How is Thoreau’s claim both true and untrue?
How does Thoreau's claim and this chapter's reference to fire (another recurrent figure in the book) shape your perceptions of what the novel says about life and the world?
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While being wild and free can definitely be a great feeling, like finally being out on your own with nobody telling you what to do. However, being wild and free and having no direction can be a bad thing. If you think about fire as being wild and free, you can easily see the dangers and advantages of being wild and free. For instance, a controlled fire can be used to maintain the internal health of a forest by burning away the decaying underbrush that threatens the health of the trees. In the same way, taking time to be free and go on vacation or hang out with friends, can reduce stress and improve mental health. A fire that does not have control, spreads rapidly and causes destruction and great loss of life. If someone has no control or direction in their life, it can cause them to become stuck in a situation where they can not recover or even where they hurt someone.
ReplyDeleteI think it means that all things that can willingly be wild and free are good. The choice is what is important. Being yourself no matter what is a good application of being wild and free. However, being too wild and free can cause people to get hurt. It is important to know exactly when to be wild. We can also never be pressured into being wild when we don't want to because then we wouldn't be free. For example, going to a party and going all out can occasionally be great for some people, but doing it every weekend or during the weekdays can be detrimental to health. Always taking the risky and wild choice is never the answer, especially if it is for the sake of reputation or to fit in. It is helpful and necessary at times to be wild and free, but there are also times when people need to be tame and free.
ReplyDelete-Anna Stone
Thoreau's claim is true with respect to the fact that human beings, along with motile life-forms, do not naturally exist inside very paradigms. Human civilization has given rise to many useful constructs, but also has placed many constraints upon individuals that even very social species do not levy upon their members. There is, intrinsically, an urge to fight against the constraints of society that most human beings feel, even if they do not act upon it, that hearkens back to the conditions in which human beings originally evolved; namely, as hunter-gatherers. Thoreau is able to connect with the link between what human beings perceive as "good" and the natural state of humans within their ecological niche while commenting on the unnatural state of social constraints and expectations. Wild and free inquiry and thought also breeds innovation within the social context, equating, generally, to good for human community. Thoreau is untrue, however, in that it is far too wide. "All" good things are not without rules or regulation. Civilization, with its expectations and limitations, can still promote general security and equity when applied correctly. By Thoreau's claim (if taken in the most literal fashion possible), constraining civilization cannot produce a good for its members, yet it is relatively demonstrable that this is not the case and that social constructs and provisions for the general well-being can produce a tangible good. Further, the images evoked of fire being motiveless yet intense mingles with Thoreau's assertion to produce something of a contradiction; spreading in every direction the indiscriminate destruction that comes with no consciousness or motive, fire is both wild and free and yet can be all-consuming, a force of destruction or a force to be harnessed in the pursuit of a goal. With the direction of intent and proper impetus, desire, like a raging fire from within, can lead to the betterment of one's life (in this case, Nora's when she decides to return to her root life). Without a real aim, it can simply fan out and consume all in its path (as Nora does simply by hopping from one reality to another with only vague goals of finding a suitable life which, nonetheless, will never be hers).
ReplyDelete-Eli Grasso
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