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Rhetoric Videos 53 videos

How Does Thoreau Feel about Commerce?
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How does Thoreau feel about commerce? He writes, "We don't ride upon the railroad; it rides upon us." He wants and end to the war fighting for the...

SAT Reading 1.2 Passage Comparison
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SAT Reading: Passage Comparison Drill 1, Problem 2

SAT Reading 2.3 Passage Comparison
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SAT Reading: Passage Comparison Drill 2, Problem 3

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SAT Reading: Assessing the Reasoning Behind Thoreau's Argument 7 Views


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Description:

Railroad ranchor. Modern life damages human life. Metaphorically. We all sacrifice our lives to be part of The System which doesn't really mirror natural human nature.


Transcript

00:02

okay people the last question in this section here we go what is the most

00:07

likely reason that water makes the statement we do not ride on the railroad [text on screen]

00:09

it rides upon us all right so let's go back to the very end here we're kind of

00:13

skimming and would go through a whole mile road you're not ride on the

00:19

railroad it rides upon us the correct answer here yeah it's a there's the

00:23

suggestions it's a to show through a metaphor that modern life damages human [students in school]

00:28

life it's pretty powerful statement but it's also another metaphor the rose not [texting while driving]

00:32

suggesting actual bodies are in fact buried under railroad tracks this is not [tomb stones along rail road tracks]

00:38

like people falling into a hot dog meat VAT and becoming hotdogs themselves like [tiny person falls into boiling caldron]

00:42

another fine book Thoreau is using the railroad as a metaphor for progress in

00:46

commerce and saying that while all of us are sacrificing our lives if we waste [crowded city]

00:51

them waste the time in our lives laboring just for the sake of the

00:55

almighty dollar or commerce as he calls it well the history of the

00:59

Transcontinental Railroad was brutal and hazardous yes see people lost their [old train movie]

01:03

lives doing work they were forced to do be however thorough isn't really [tomb stones]

01:07

concerned with those practical dangers in the passage like you see any direct

01:11

references to this stuff he does criticize the need to move rapidly but

01:15

in the case of the railroad it's the sacrifice of a person's time to commerce [crowded city time lapse]

01:19

that really bothers Thoreau so get rid of D there the answer is a all right [women shopping

01:23

good luck we're gonna move on to a new passage now finally we're done with the [man in the mountains next to a fire]

01:27

rub thoroughly

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