Partner Blog

When I first read this poem, once again me and Benjamin got a little confused as to what the story was talking about. We read and analyzed this poem at least several times and yet we still could not get the grasp of it. What me and Benjamin finally got out of it was that everyone knows that a mother is caring and very loving. Me and Benjamin believe that a Emily Dickinson used Nature as a mother in this story.You think of a mother and a child and you immediately think of the bond that they share. They have such a great bond and when Dickinson says this it says that nature is like a mother. I guess that if you think about it like saying when the sun comes up, your mother gets you up and when the sun goes down, she puts you to bed. The little things in the middle of this poem may be the things that she does for you to reward you. Nature is doing the same things for us that a mother does. She treats us with love and care just like the warm summer day that the poem refers to, and when it is dark nature puts us in our beds and cools us down. Here is a quote from the story that shows how Emily Dickinson referred to a motherly sense in the story, "When all the children sleep She turns as long away As will suffice to light her lamps; Then, bending from the sky" (Dickinson). This is showing that you think of a mother putting her children away for the night, and the nature outside is calm and seemingly very caring. Dickinson also gives out a positive vibe towards by writing nature as a soothing and relaxing topic. She does this by saying things like "summer afternoon" (Dickinson). When one thinks about a summer afternoon, you think of a sunny day, not too hot, but with a perfect breeze, and being outside for this is like nothing other in the world. I love these kinds of days where it is a perfect day to play outside and chill out. Dickinson does a great job with explaining this and this is when me and Ben started to get ideas.

During a few classes we have looked at the literal meaning of the poem. After looking at the first stanza the literal meaning that we got out of this was that nature is gentle and patient to all children. Some of the words were hard to understand and we had to look them up, which made the literal meaning harder. The last part of the stanzas literal meaning comes out to be, she still gives advice to the weak and the improper. Overall, through the way me and Ben analyzing and looking at this poem, I think we did a good job with looking at how Dickinson wrote this poem and what she did to show us how she wrote all her stories.

Bibliography

Dickinson, Emily. "1. “Nature, the Gentlest Mother.” Part Two: Nature. Dickinson, Emily. 1924. Complete Poems." 1. “Nature, the Gentlest Mother.” Part Two: Nature. Dickinson, Emily. 1924. Complete Poems. Web. 28 Mar. 2012.

Journal 28

Emily Dickinson's poem, I heard a fly buzz has a very disheartening and depressing mood.  It is definitely not something you would want to read if you are looking to get into a good move.  Although the mood is not a optimistic one, it is still a very well written poem that has a good message through it. 

Emily Dickinso writes this poem and she come to the fact that she is going to die.  I think that this would be a very hard thing to come to terms with.  You only get to live once and you want to take all the advantages of the time that you have.  I do not want to die any time soon and to come to terms and accept that I am going to die.  Emily, no matter what she is feeling, has accepted this.  The part that I find somewhat funny is the fly.  Why does she write about a fly?  If you think about it, what purpose does a fly have in life?  Nobody really likes them and I find them very annoying.  They always find a way to get into your house or around you and you just want to kill them.  I think that Emily wrote like this because she pictured herself as the fly.  If you think about Emily and what she was like, she never got out and nobody really wanted to be around her.  She may have seemed as annoying to other people and her family.  I think she wrote about the fly because she wanted to say that everything in life has a purpose.  No matter what you are, how annoying you may be, there is always a purpose for you.  I think that this is a great message that Emily is trying to send.  She is trying to reach out to the people that were like her and show them that people can make a difference in life just like she did with her writing.

Amazing Grace - Emily Dickinson

I think that Emily Dickinson used this song as a background in so many of her poems because it has a Godly message to it.  I have heard this on in the car before on the Christian channel, WIBI, and Emily Dickinson used it a lot because she was taugh as a child to have a God filled background in her life.  Anyways, she uses it a lot because she had that background.  Emily Dickinson never actually became affiliated with the church, but her family was.  Since she never got out much and rarely if at all had visitors her family played a huge role in her.  Since she never became a member of the church, I think that this song has a lot do with her life.  When it says, Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me.  I once was lost but now am found, Was blind, but now I see, I believe that she was glad that she had the grace of God.  She never went out and did all the Godly things that one should do and she was so happy because she had the grace of God that could save her.

In eighth grade, I went to a Christian school and we watched a movie in literature class about slavery and the reason that I bring this up is that Amazing Grace was the song that was played in it, and it may have been the title of the movie.  Anyways, the song was written because of slavery, I can't think who wrote it, but it was written from this point.

Although Emily Dickinson never came out about God much, I think that she had a great relationship with the Lord.  She came from a strong Christian household which raised her, but the party where I know that I am right about this comes from her writing of poems with Amazing Grace as it goes along with the poem.  No one does that just to do it, so she had to have a motive for doing it and I believe that it was because she loved the Lord.

Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson, just like Walt Whitman, is one of those writers whose works will be carried on forever.  She had a great influence to the individual style of writing and wrote many great poems.  Emily Dickinson was a unique girl though.  She went to school away from home and than became homesick.   She could not stand being away from home, making her have to come back and be home.  After this, she rarely left the house and seldomly would visitors ever come stop by and see her.  After seeing all of this about Emily, one can only imagine all the works that she must have on individualism.  She was by herself all of the time so she would not be writing about others, it would just be about herself.

I'm nobody! Who are you? This is a poem that Emily Dickinson wrote is about having that person that will care for you and watch out for you.  In it, two "nobody's" meet and they begin talking to each other and they form a close relationship.
And then a Plank in Reason, broke,
 I'm nobody! Who are you?
Are you nobody, too?
Then there's a pair of us — don't tell!
They'd banish us, you know.
How dreary to be somebody!
How public, like a frog
To tell your name the livelong day
To an admiring bog!

They soon realize that now they are not a nobody because they have each other.  That is the message of the poem.  It is trying to tell you that it is more important to have one person closely admire you, rather than a whole group of people doing it just to fit in.  I think that Emily wrote about this because she did not have that person outside of her family feel this way about her.  "Under the law, she was, indeed, a Nobody. Her revered, patriarchal father, Edward Dickinson, believed that, while women should be educated, a "proper woman" would maintain a low profile, confining her influence to the private sphere" (Leiter).   Emily Dickinson really had no life outside writing and her family, and it must have been tough for her to write this because she probably dreamed of having friends, but she never got the opportunity to have them.


I felt a Funeral, in my Brain,
And Mourners to and fro
Kept treading -- treading -- till it seemed
That Sense was breaking through --

And when they all were seated,
A Service, like a Drum --
Kept beating -- beating -- till I thought
My Mind was going numb --

And then I heard them lift a Box
And creak across my Soul
With those same Boots of Lead, again,
Then Space -- began to toll,

As all the Heavens were a Bell,
And Being, but an Ear,
And I, and Silence, some strange Race
Wrecked, solitary, here -- (Dickinson)

The individual thoughts on Emily's writings come out here because she feels like she is losing everything now.  She has writing and to write you have to think therefore if she loses writing she will have nothing left.  It is sad to see this, but in writing this she regains her swagger and keeps going.

Leiter, Sharon. "'I'm Nobody! Who are you?'." Critical Companion to Emily Dickinson: A Literary Reference to Her Life and Work, Critical Companion. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2006. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= CCED064&SingleRecord=True (accessed March 20, 2012).

"I Felt a Funeral, in My Brain, - Poem by Emily Dickinson." Famous Poets and Poems. Web. 21 Mar. 2012. http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/emily_dickinson/poems/5399.

"1f. "I'm Nobody! Who Are You?" by Emily Dickinson [Beyond Books - Reading Between the Lines]." Beyond Books. Web. 21 Mar. 2012. <http://www.beyondbooks.com/lit71/1f.asp>.

Walt Whitman

To this day, Walt Whitman is one of the most historical writers to walk the face of the earth.  He will always be remembered for what he contributed to the various writng styles.  Walt Whitman was a writer during the 1800's.  Walt Whitman was considered a tweener because he did not necesarily fall into one specific style of writing.  He was inbetween, hints the tween, the modernism style of writing and the realism style of writing.

The first type of writing is Modernism, which is about the modern growth in industry and many popular Modernism poems/stories were about the World War 1. Also a huge part of modernism was that the author will write a lot about individualism and the idea of equality.  In the poem, Song of Myself, it comes out a lot on the individualism about the story.  " I CELEBRATE myself, and sing myself,
And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.
I loafe and invite my soul,
I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass (Whitman).

Throughout this story, it refers the I and me, which takes on a huge characteristic of the modernism style of writing.  The celebration of ones self is very important to basically every one.  It has carried into the world that we live in today and plays a huge part in everybody's life, whether they want to admit it or not.  "One would expect, therefore, the democratization of the sublime in Leaves of Grass, certainly in Song of Myself, where the announced subject is, one first supposes, limited to the body, emotions, experiences, and apprehensions of a single man. Greater directness, and a greater radicalization of traditional poetic tone, can scarcely be imagined than that found in the blunt opening lines, "I celebrate myself, and sing myself." In many definitions of the sublime, "commonness"—even commonness transfigured—can have no part at all, but a reader of Whitman is soon accustomed to his practice of refocusing the visionary mode, wherein the small is made the courtyard of the vast and the squalid is the guise that the holy puts on to enter squalid environs" (Hopes).  This shows that Whitman was impressed with the mind as a sense of power.

The other style of writing that Walt Whitman found himself between was realism.  Realism is the portraying of how something actually is.  It is not the ideal society but the real society, to give you an idea of what I am talking about.  An example of this is Calvary crossing a Ford.  Whitman talked about how what the men did when they were not fighting in the war (when they were doing nothing).
"Behold the brown-faced, each group, each person a picture, the negligent rest on the saddles." (Whitman).  This is realism writing because it is portraying these men as they actually are, or what they are doing.  Obviously they are tan from being outside and they are sitting down.  This style of writing takes a simple approach becaue there are no tricks behind it, it is just how it really is.

Hopes, David Brendan. "The Sublime Self: Whitman's Sense of the Sublime in Song of Myself." Asheville: University of North Carolina. Quoted as "The Sublime Self: Whitman's Sense of the Sublime in Song of Myself" in Bloom, Harold, ed. The Sublime, Bloom's Literary Themes. New York: Chelsea House Publishing, 2010. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= BLTS018&SingleRecord=True (accessed March 20, 2012).
Whitman, Walt. "Calvary Crossing a Ford." Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 533 . Print.

Whitman, Walt. "from song of Myself." Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 533 . Print.

Walt Whitman

I chose Give me the Splendid, Silent Sun by Walt Whitman.  I find it easier to do these blogs when you know that they are talking about nature because both Emerson and Thoreau loved nature and it is always better to write on two writers that agree on things, rather than to disagree.  This is the last blog of the third quarter which is exciting, so I picked this poem because it is exciting and it is what I am wishing for right now.

There are two parts to the poem.  The first one being loving nature.  It says give me this and give me that (Whitman).  It is saying these things that all come out of a beautiful sunny day. It goes on and one about what they want to be given to them and things like fruit, a wife, an open field, and unending crops come up (Whitman).  I think that this can be good and bad.  For the good, I think that it can be good because they want the warm weather and the things that come with that.  Who does not want these things?  Thoreau would have loved this poem because it says of all the pros that come along with a beautiful day.  Thoreau saw it as manifest destiny (Grant).  I think that is where we can go wrong to because we are not relying on ourself to bring us all these wonderful things, we are asking and demanding for them.  We are not relying on ourselves to do the job.  In a sense we are being lazy and just sitting back and begging for these things to come to us.  In the second part of this poem, it is kind of the same way because it is saying give me this and give me that.  We are not being self-reliant upon ourselves to go out there and get what we need, we are relying on something else, where we should be doing it ourselves.

Grant, P. B. "Nature in

Walden." McClinton-Temple, Jennifer ed. Encyclopedia of Themes in

Literature

. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2011. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc.

http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=&iPin=ETL1134&SingleRecord=True (accessed January

30, 2012).

"130. Give Me the Splendid, Silent Sun. Whitman, Walt. 1900. Leaves of Grass." Bartleby.com: Great Books Online. Bartletby Bookstore. Web. 12 Mar. 2012. <http://www.bartleby.com/142/130.html>.

Emily Dickinson

The poem I selected and chose to read was call Nature, The Gentlest Mother, of course by Emily Dickinson.  After seeing a long line of poems to chose from, I immediately went under the "n's" to see if there was anything about nature, because of Thoreau's and Emerson's views on those two topics.  Anyways Emily Dickinson compares nature to a mother, hints the title.  She expresses positive attitudes towards nature inferring that nature is like a mother (Dickinson).  Dickinson also gives out a positive vibe towards by writing nature as a soothing and relaxing topic.  She does this by saying things like "summer afternoon" (Dickinson).  When one thinks about a summer afternoon, you think of a sunny day, not too hot, but with a perfect breeze, and being outside for this is like nothing other in the world.  Dickinson.  It compares to Thoreau's love for nature when he said that nature was like an artistic model (Grant).  I think than Dickinson is trying to prove the same thing when she talks about a summer afternoon because she is giving the reader a visual image of what a summer afternoon may look like.

Emily Dickinson also gives the reader a clear image of how she thinks nature is like a mother.  When she says this:

"all the children sleep
She turns as long away
As will suffice to light her lamps;
Then, bending from the sky

With infinite affection
And infiniter care,
Her golden finger on her lip,
Wills silence everywhere" (Dickinson)

You think of a mother and a child and you immediately think of the bond that they share.  They have such a great bond and when Dickinson says this it says that nature is like a mother.  I guess that if you think about it like saying when the sun comes up, your mother gets you up and when the sun goes down, she puts you to bed.  The little things in the middle of this poem may be the things that she does for you to reward you.  Nature is doing the same things for us that a mother does.  She treats us with love and care just like the warm summer day that the poem refers to, and when it is dark nature puts us in our beds and cools us down.

Grant, P. B. "Nature in

Walden." McClinton-Temple, Jennifer ed. Encyclopedia of Themes in

Literature

. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2011. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc.

http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=&iPin=ETL1134&SingleRecord=True (accessed January

30, 2012).

Selected Poems by Emily Dickinson." Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities. University of Maryland. Web. 12 Mar. 2012. <http://mith.umd.edu//WomensStudies/ReadingRoom/Poetry/Dickinson/nature-the-gentlest-mother>.

To Build A Fire

To Build A Fire, written by Jack London is about a man who travels in Yukon, Alaska.  This man is walking with him and his dog.  He is going to meet up with his friends at a place at six o'clock, so he figures that he should get a head start and start walking (London 604).  Just like every other person in this world, he thinks that he can do something that he can not.  He becomes a little cocky when he thinks that he can walk by himself to meet up with his friends.  As a traveler, you should never travel alone especially if you are new and in freezing cold weather.  If you get lost you are basically done for, or if you somehow manage to hurt yourself or get caught in a predicament like this man did.  He was in freezing weather all by himself (London 604-605). 

The man who was “quick and alert in the things in life, but only the things, and not in the significances” learned that there are forces outside of his control (London 604).  This man respected nothing.  He had no respect for his friends who gave him advice as to what to wear.  He thinks that he is better and knows more than this man when he clearly has no idea what he is doing.  Most importantly he has no respect for nature.  Thoreau respected nature to a great extent.  This man did not treat nature very well and in return, he got what he deserved back.  If you treat nature, or really anything badly, you should not expect something good or something that will benefit you in return. 

Thoreau said that in nature, material items are just a bonus if you have them because nature itself can provide you with all the material things that you need.  It can provide you with food, shelter, water, and a lot more (Grant).  Unfortunately this man did not realize what the outdoors provided for him and instead of this he went off and killed his dog for warmth and relied on what he had.

London, Jack. “To Build a Fire.” Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 603-614. Print.

Grant, P. B. "Nature in

Walden." McClinton-Temple, Jennifer ed. Encyclopedia of Themes in

Literature

. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2011. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc.

http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=&iPin=ETL1134&SingleRecord=True (accessed January

30, 2012).

Richard Cory

Richard Cory, written by Edwin Arlington Robinson, is a poem that takes a unique spin at the end.  Richard Cory is portrayed as a very rich, nice, elegant man who seems that his life is perfect and that he has everything that he could dream of (Robinson 575).  It seems that everyone in the town wishes that they could have the life of Richard Cory.  Although Cory knew that he was rich - and he acted like it some times - he was still human in saying good morning to everyone that he came in contact with (Robinson 575).  The poem goes on saying that the people were struggling during this time period, and than it says that Cory killed himself, by putting a gun to his head. 

It makes you wonder what could make a man kill himself, when he seems to have everything imaginable?  Why would someone do that to themselves if they lived in a great life.  Thoreau believes that social reform must begin with one's self (Grant).  Thoreau also states that America has been ruined by luxury (Grant).  It makes sense to say that luxury ruined Richard Cory's life.  The audience sees what one has and thinks that must make them happy.  The man who lives that life, may totally think a different thing.  He may feel like that "stuff" does not make him happy and he would do anything to be happy.  No one can tell what makes someone happy and people are deceived by the riches in life, like Thoreau said.  Henry David Thoreau was not a believer of material wealth as "wealth can not buy freedom" (Cisco).  Emerson must have the same feelings to, because he states that harmony between man and nature will bring delight, and, since nature cannot be bought and is not a material item, Emerson must believe that money can not buy happiness.   All three writers, Emerson Thoreau, and Robinson all share the same feelings in that happiness must come from one's self and not from material things or money.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo. "Nature." Ralph Waldo Emerson Texts. Web. 06 Feb. 2012.

Robinson, Edwin Arlington. “Richard Corey.” Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 575. Print.

Grant, P. B. "Individual and Society in

Walden." McClinton-Temple, Jennifer ed. Encyclopedia of

Themes in Literature

. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2011. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc.

http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=&iPin=ETL1133&SingleRecord=True (accessed January

30, 2012).Cisco, Michael. "Henry David Thoreau: Bachelor of Thought and Nature." In Bloom, Harold, ed. Henry David Thoreau, Bloom's BioCritiques. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishing, 2003. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. Web. 04 Mar. 2012.

The Darling

The Darling written by Anton Chekhov is a compelling story of the life of a woman named Olga Plemyannikov.  Olga seems to always be in love with someone during this story.  It is quite weird because love should not happen everytime you meet someone knew and that is what happened with Olga (Chekhov 558).  She would be in love with one guy and than that person would somehow leave her life, whether it would be by death or departure of someone. When Mr. Mallard dies, Mrs. Mallard is ecstatic about her new found "freedom" that comes with the news (Chopin 555). This goes with how can you say you were in love with someone if you were happy that they died?  The point that a lot of people agree with is that love is a word that is thrown out too much.  People say they are in love and they really are not, they just think they are.  Olga could not be in love that many times.  She was sitting on her porch steps and saw her neighbor Mr. Kukin at his house complaining about the weather (Chekhov 558).  She begins to fall in love with him and than they come up with the idea to get married (Chekhov 558).

The Darling and Richard Cory are similar in so many ways.  They both share the same idea about happiness.  In the Darling, Olga found her happiness in falling in love with some man.  This would continue to happen every time after something happened with the previous man.  She relied on someone else for her happiness.  It is not saying that you are the only way to make yourself happy, but you can not have someone make you feel that way.  Thoreau said it himself that happiness must come from one's self (Grant).  Thoreau also said that luxury is causing all of the problems (Grant).  The luxury in this story was Olga's relationships and her falling in love with other men.  Men were the luxury that caused Olga's distress.  Emerson also said that happiness can not be bought by one thing.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo. "Nature." Ralph Waldo Emerson Texts. Web. 06 Feb. 2012.

Robinson, Edwin Arlington. “Richard Corey.” Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 575. Print.

Grant, P. B. "Individual and Society in

Walden." McClinton-Temple, Jennifer ed. Encyclopedia of

Themes in Literature

. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2011. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc.

http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=&iPin=ETL1133&SingleRecord=True (accessed January

30, 2012).

I Will Fight No More Forever

The short story, I Will Fight No More Forever, written by Chief Justice is a very sad story that tells the lives of the Native Americans during this time period.  In Miss Radliffe's history class, we just learned about this time period and what was going on.  The white Americans thought that God had given them the western land for them to go to and settle.  I can not remember what this was called, but they thought that they received that land from God, in some sort of message.  This was when California was also in their gold rush and people were looking for a quick way to get rich.  So now even more and more people were wanting to come west and see what was there.  Native Americans habited this land and now there was a problem on what to do with them.  This time period brought out racism.  The white men decided to say that this is our land and you either will go to our reservation or you will be killed.  In this story, the Native Americans decided to fight back it appears.  This decision turns out to be fatal.  Everybody is dying or is freezing to death (Chief Joseph 533).  It is cold out, they have no blankets, no food, and people are freezing to death (Chief Joseph 533).  They have decided that they regret their decision and that they will fight no more (Chief Joseph). 

Thoreau definitely would have liked the Indians because he was a big man about nature.  He was one of those guys that felt like he was a part of nature.  He even said things like, is not my body made up of leaves (Grant).  As a reader, you can almost imagine Thoreau in person.  He was definitely one of those guys that wanted to be outside.  He was getting his hands dirty trying to find worms, or things like that. Those are the things that I envision about Thoreau.  There is nothing wrong about that, it is kind of funny how much he loved nature.

Chief Joseph. "I Will Fight No More Forever." Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 531-533. Print.

Grant, P. B. "Nature in

Walden." McClinton-Temple, Jennifer ed. Encyclopedia of Themes in

Literature

. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2011. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc.

http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=&iPin=ETL1134&SingleRecord=True (accessed January

30, 2012).

Spoon River Anthology

The Hill, an exerpt from the Spoon River Anthology is a very well written poem that describes the life of five men (Masters).  They all have one characteristic associated with them and each one is different from the other.  Some of the men that are described in this poem do not have great characteristics.  The five characteristics, each referring to a different person are:  weak of will, the strong of arm, the clown, the boozer, and the fighter (Masters).  Maybe there are two good characteristics in here.  There is definitely one, but the fighter could go either way depending on how you put it in real life.  The other three are not characteristics that I wish to attain one day.  Each dies how you would imagine, the figher dies by fighting, and the rest you can put two and two together to figure out what caused them to die.  No matter the life, no matter the death, Masters is trying to get one point across and that is that you will be buried by a total stranger just like these five men were buried in the same hill.  No matter the life, it leads to one ending.  Masters is also trying to say that each of these death goes back to the person.  It is pretty easy to assume that and recognize, but Masters is trying to tell us to watch out for our roblems.  If we are a boozer, as the man in the story was than the chances of us dying of some alcohol related incident is likely.

Thoreau goes along with the ideal that we as a society need to fix our problems (Grant).  In this he states that the society has been so obsessed with trying to get everything that we do not need but the things that make us feel good.  In order to solve this, Thoreau states that the only way to overcome this is to start by going through ones self (Grant).  This relates with Masters ideas because we all have our problems and the only way to overcome them is to take it upon yourself.

Grant, P. B. "Nature in

Walden." McClinton-Temple, Jennifer ed. Encyclopedia of Themes in

Literature

. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2011. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc.

http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=&iPin=ETL1134&SingleRecord=True (accessed January

30, 2012).

"Excerpt from." EReader.com:. A Barnes & Noble. Web. 02 Mar. 2012. <http://www.ereader.com/servlet/mw?t=book_excerpt>.