Why I Went To The Woods

Editorial Cartoon:
The creator of the cartoon uses pathos to exemplify what society is addicted to. The author presents a man injecting himself with various types of “drugs”. The “drugs” in the syringes represent the items that society believes are “essential” to live with. For example, one syringe says a Bigger House. Another syringe says a Sleeker Stereo. In addition to all the syringes on the table and in the background, the facial expression of the man help create an emotion of being overwhelmed and desperate to continue injecting themselves with these essential needs. The image overall represents how society is lost in trying to obtain what the purpose of life is through materialistic needs instead of discovering life through simplicity.
Thoreau begins to describe how man chooses to see shams and delusions over reality. In addition, he describes how man does not see life like children even though they have more experienc3. He then continues to compare children to men by stating, “Children, who play life, discern its true law and relations more clearly than men, who fail to live it worthily, but who think that they are wiser by experience, that is, by failure.” This quote demonstrates how man believes that they are wiser in life yet they do not know how to live life worthily. However, children view life simply and therefore know how to live life.

Op-Ed:
The author uses logos to convey how other people have experienced simplicity and their results. David Brooks asked his readers to write essays about what their purpose of life is. Furthermore, he begins to introduce some of the answers that his readers gave and found out that they have all written about that same theme: simplicity. By quoting some of the responses in his article, it creates reasoning that informs and influences the reader to believe that simplicity can lead to the findings of the purpose of life.