Chapter 5 Solitude

In chapter 5 of Walden, Thoreau elaborates on the idea of solitude. He uses a lot of symbolism to convey his message that solitude is not something to hate and is something to enjoy. His tone when explaining is kind of sad yet a little joyful when it comes to instances of saying jovial moments of solitude. "I am no more lonely than the loon in the pond that laughs so loud." (Thoureau 5). by stating that, Thoreau's tone is exposed by using a metaphor to compare himself to convey that Thoreau is sad and yet satisfied when being alone. When using the word laughs, he is basically mocking the people who mock him for being alone. Symbollically speaking, Thoreau loves solitude. When it comes to diction, Thoreau's word choice is varied yet congenial when it comes to comparing himself. "Shall I not have the intelligence with the earth? Am I not partly leaves and vegetable mould myself?" (Thoreau 5) Well, clearly Thoreau uses this diction to make us "spectators" (Thoreau 4) uknderstand that he asks these rhetorical questions to convince us that his point is valid. Another word he uses is cheap. "Society is commonly too cheap." (Thoreau 4) By this he is showing his true hatred on how society is running. The word cheap makes a bold statement in this chapter. His audience is not clearly stated in the chapter. However, the inference could be made that the audience is a group of people that view solitude as something not considering. "but spectator, sharing no experience, but taking note of it, and that is no more than it is to you." (Thoreau 4) By saying spectator, Thoreau despises those who don't believe in solitude. So he uses a disrespectful word to address the crowd. The Title is very clear to me. The one element of this chapter that I actually admire. By only using one word, Thoreau contrasts his title to the rest of the chapter. By that I mean that the title is stated in one word, but the idea of it is stated in numerous words. By this, Thoreau is portraying that the title is itself in solitude. Very clever.