A Return to Giveness Book Review by Ally
A Return to Giveness
An analysis of David Thoreau's "Walden Pond" exploring his theme of trying to regain and hold onto a sense of "giveness".
# 151618
| 1,764 words
| 1 source
| APA
| 2002
| 
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Description:
This paper discusses how in each chapter of Thoreau's "Walden", he attempts to recover our "giveness: to existence through a distance-producing, but internal brand of skepticism. It looks at how in "Higher Laws" Thoreau addresses one of our most basic needs to survival, food and how the precondition first is that of survival. The paper further discusses how, by closely analyzing how we acquire our food and our attitudes about our appetites, Thoreau contends that we recover the "giveness" of the basic need of eating and discover "higher" or spiritual sides within ourselves. The paper also looks at how this theme continues in "Former Inhabitants" and Winter Visitors," as well as in "Conclusion."
From the Paper:
"After the discourse on hunting and fishing, he then addresses the subject of what we eat and he relates this to his idea of cost. Ironically, he admits that he still fishes even though he knows it is a part of one of his lower instincts. He feels that "there is something essentially unclean about this diet of all flesh." He continues and writes how when he has caught a fish, cleaned it, and then ate it, "they seem not to have fed me essentially. It was insignificant and unnecessary, and cost more than it came to." One might suggest that the price of cost took away from his "giveness," Here he comes back to cost. In Thoureau's philosophic project, he is concerned how different aspects of living cost a piece in life, and to live life to its fullest, one should have as least cost as possible. Thus he concludes that preparing and eating flesh costs too much."Sample of Sources Used:
- Thoreau, David. Walden Pond; Or Life in the Woods (1854). Online-Literature. 2000. Web. 21 Feb. 2002.
Cite this Book Review:
APA Format
A Return to Giveness (2012, July 23)
Retrieved June 07, 2023, from https://www.academon.com/book-review/a-return-to-giveness-151618/
MLA Format
"A Return to Giveness" 23 July 2012.
Web. 07 June. 2023. <https://www.academon.com/book-review/a-return-to-giveness-151618/>