Rhetorical Devices In Two Paragraphs

Through the first paragraph, Thoreau declares that he wants to live a simple, yet purposeful life.
The distinctions he makes in paragraph one are that he wants to live his life to the fullest with whatever it throws at him.
The antithesis in paragraph one is in sentence one when he contrasts life and death to explain that he did not want to die to understand that he did not truly live.
The word “dear” was meaning that life was precious, and “mean” was to explain how difficult or harsh it could be.
The effect of the simile -comparing our busy lives to those of ants- was to make the reader think that we need to slow down and enjoy life and nature.
The effect of the extended metaphor in paragraph -comparing our lives to that of a train- two was to show that humans are flawed and that we need to live more exciting lives.
With Thoreau’s repetitions, such as “simplify,” he is telling us that he believes that we should live simple lives.
The paradox
The phrase “starved before we are hungry,” near the beginning of paragraph three means that people are often moving too fast through their while complaining about how miserable, like they are “starving,” when in fact they are living comfortable lives.
In paragraph four, he states that the post office is irrelevant. He also explains how unimportant he believes the news to be. Back then, it may have been a bolder statement as they did not have the technology that we have now and many people communicated through mail. However, in today’s times, many people would agree that the post office is mainly irrelevant as we can use technology to speak to others, and we can get news on the internet.
In paragraph 7, the alliterative phrase “freshet and frost and fire” emphasizes that the reader should try to achieve their goals in any condition, whether it be cold or