Thoreau Metaphors

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Henry David Thoreau was a transcendentalist thinker who decided to live next to a pond for a while and write a book that most current day high school students despise. However, some of the lessons hidden in his abstract metaphors and confusing similes still hold weight today. One of the main focuses of Walden was to show readers that they can live off of the bare minimum and do not need fancy technology to live. His life at Walden Pond proved this notion. While many people may have read Thoreau’s work, almost none took it to heart. Today, a study has shown that people spend more time looking at a screen as opposed to sleeping. Trying to limit so called screen time, WNYC put out a challenge to their listeners that they believed could make people …show more content…
As our conversation shifted from topic to topic, my mom at one point asked how school was that day. I told her the stereotypical answer that is, “it was okay.” However she made me elaborate. We talked about how boring math class was and how hard my science quiz was and then we came to a subject I could talk about. She asked me about Driver’s Education. I told her about how we had a guest speaker and he told us about the effects that distracted driving can have. He gave a whole bunch of statistics that I then conveyed to my mom. After that she was done with hearing my voice and the conversation die out. I was left in a quiet car with no phone and nothing but my …show more content…
Society has gotten to a point where we are not only distracted by technology but constantly put our life in danger just to use it. Cell phones were meant to be tools that would improve human life not end it. However, people for some reason constantly use their cell phones while driving. Thoreau’s quote, “Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things,” explains our addiction perfectly. These new inventions that come out what seems to be everyday takes away from our life. We are so consumed by them that we are distracted from things far more important. In the case of my experience, phones have become so vital to society 's’ life that we must check them constantly, thus putting ourselves in serious situations. What Thoreau feared has come true, we are at the point where technology is so vital to our life we can’t seem to life without

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