Chapter 11

Chapter 11

1. Thoreau develops an animal like instinct, more wilderness than human being

   • A woodchuck crossed his path, making him even more so a primitive animal than human
     • Feels he must eat the animal
       • Believes tha hunting is a great aspect of life than humans must understand, leaving them with greater education and spiritual morals
         • Questioned the being of animals during hunting
           • Wondered where the mean of savagery came from and if his savagery would come in conflict with his spirituality
     • "Strongly tempted to seize and devour him raw"
       • Was not always physically in need of food, but in the wild life of hunting and gathering, delighting him when he would accomplish the natural feeling
         • Was a born fisher, but became more causious of his intake of meat and fish
           • Eating flesh was unclean and therefore turned to vegetarianism, not for any benefit
             • Simplistic meals are better because they are filling, yet less difficult to obtain
               • Questions religion and the choices we make and strive for
             • Purification
   • Questions his own nobility and savagery
     • Understands that he has both aspects, of man and animal, and cherishes both
       • He had similar feelings of savagery before as he scavanged the wilderness
         • Still felt that he was placed in a higher and more spiritual realm than that of the average man