Drawing of Thoreau's cabin by his sister Sophia
Lesson 1: The life and times of Thoreau
Lesson 2: Thoreau's philosophy of government
Lesson 3: Thoreau's writing style
Lesson 4: Imprisonment and individuality
Lesson 3: How can we analyze Thoreau's writing style?
Instructional Objectives:
Students will be able to describe Thoreau’s literary style,
including, tone, hyperbole, metaphor, rhetorical question, and point of view.
They will also be able to use the same devices in their own response to
his essay.
Time:
One forty minute class
Motivation:
The teacher writes some adjectives on the board, such as:
Learned, opinionated,
righteous, sarcastic, ironic, unclear, rambling, and sermonizing.
The students are asked to
scan the homework reading and choose an adjective that best describes the tone
of Thoreau’s essay.
Vocabulary:
Transgress – overstep or break, as a law or commandment
Development:
- The homework is reviewed.
“Such command no more respect than men of straw or a lump of dirt.”
Using their homework notes, students are asked: About whom is Thoreau writing?
And why does he give them no
respect?
This review will demonstrate that Thoreau’s depiction of military personnel is exaggerated. It also provides the class with a chance to deflate Thoreau's philosophy of individualism, and sets up the paradox of choice for good citizenship that everyone must face.
The teacher then elicits the
literary device of hyperbole.
2.
The devices of rhetorical question and metaphor are reviewed before the
teacher reads the
next part of the essay.
The students are asked to
identify the rhetorical questions and the metaphor in the reading.
Summary: Each student is then asked to draft an e-mail to Thoreau from the point of view of a citizen who has ceased to own slaves, stating whether or not he or she will follow his advice. (Note: The homework should already be posted so they can try to use the literary devices in their draft.)
If your students do not have e-mail accounts, you can show them how to set up free ones at www.yahoo.com or www.hotmail.com.
Homework: Students are directed to finish writing their e-mail to Thoreau and include at least one of the following literary devices: rhetorical question, hyperbole, metaphor.
Each student will send his or her e-mail to another student in the class for this writing assignment, and the teacher will be "cc'ed."
Extension: After the e-mails are shared, post on the class web site and compare the results of the e-mails to the poll taken in the previous lesson.
Evaluation: This assignment takes the students' judgment to another level. That is, in a critical issue like slavery, would they protest alone? The e-mail content will be evaluated based on persuasiveness of argument, effective inclusion of one or more literary devices, and number of spelling and grammatical errors.