Excerpt from Walden

Henry David Thoreau

Given how Thoreau compares the striped snake's behavior to how men behave, what can be inferred about Thoreau's opinion concerning how men live?

In this text, Thoreau compares the way in which a stripped snake behaves to the way humans behave. He tells us that the snake would lay on the bottom when it went into the water, and remain there. According to Thoreau, the snake was missing the blooming of spring and the beauty of nature by behaving in this way. He compares the snake to the way in which humans behave. He argues that the current way of society is the way of degradation, and that we also live at the bottom. We are too focused on ourselves and our material possessions to come out and enjoy the natural world, which deserves appreciation and has the ability to make us reach a "higher life."

the tone of the passage is sympathetic to the forbidden love of romeo and juliet. the nurse plays a significant role in the play. she is responsible for making their meeting again possible. additionally, there is a sense of warning in the choice of words of the nurse. she seems to be authoritative when she calls romeo "scurvy knave", and at the same time the fact that she addresses to him as "sir" reflects respect. the nurse is "vexed", this word describes her confused state of mind. on the one hand, she finds romeo a fine and eloquent man, but on the other, it is thought that man's nature forces men to try to trick women.