HW: Thoreau

In Walden: or, Life in the Woods Thoreau illustrates many beautiful scenes, but also depicts acts that seem terrible. He wrote of a fight between some ants. His imagery is vivid, almost equal to action movies and war documentaries. He wrote "the black soldier had severed the heads of his foes from their bodies" which made me think about humanity, or in this case some inhumanity. In the margins I wrote "more humane to kill them?". I felt empathy for these ants. Thoreau is known for writing about nature and illustrating how nature is more humane than humans are. This was an interesting realization, that this ant battle could be scene as a mirror to society, that the black soldier could be seen as humans that hunt animals.