What Drives Human Behavior
Unit Overview:
So far this semester, I have explored vastly different attitudes toward life as found in transcendental (Thoreau), modernist (T.S. Eliot and Robinson), and contemporary (Dillard) literature. The goal of these units was to identify messages of what drives human behavior and also to identify our own attitude toward life. The focus was on literary analysis and supporting our assertions with evidence from the texts.
1. How to write a strong literary analysis essay. The purpose of literary analysis essay is to examine and evaluate the perspective of the author’s aspect of literature and ideas. Writing an analysis essay will enhance writer’s critical abilities to express the author’s ideas. Therefore, the solid essay elements are clear thesis, introduction, and conclusion. Initially, the essay must contain the thesis to reveal the topic of the essay. Next, the writer should try to capture the reader’s attention by using an interesting introduction. For instance, picking a quote from the author’s ideas to analyze thoughtful background of the quote. This method will bring the reader’s attention because the subliminal message from the author’s ideas. The writer must coporate about how the author use quote that is a metaphor, symbols and other elements that bring out a comparison between subjects.
2. What drives human behavior?
Human behavior flows from three main sources: emotion, desire, and
knowledge. From what I’ve learned about T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of
J. Alfred Prufrock”, it reveals the emotion behavior of a human because
Prufrock is attempting the impossible- perfectionism. This poem shows
how lonely and alienated he is. Additionally, he is also having desire of
attempting having a conversation with a woman but he is too self-cons-
cious about his appearance. Modernists seemed to believe that alienation,
negativism, and ambiguity drove human nature. Modernism expresses
the human behavior by being awareness and emotions toward the society.
I have learned that Thoreau’s Walden, Dillard’s “Living like Weasels drives
human behavior because it’s about a comparison between weasels and
human, focusing on instinct. Instinct is a human behavior, it’s natural in our lives. Humans and animals use instinct to defend themselves and for the best choice when surviving. All of these topic I’ve learned in the first semester are all about a comparison between their ideas and human behaviors.
STRENGTHS
Identifies and relates the key ideas and details of a written work:
I think I did a great job on picking out Thoreau and Dillard's main ideas. I made a clear distinction between Thoreau's simplicity and Dillard's instinct.
WEakness
Uses knowledge of language and its conventions when speaking, writing, and reading, or listening
This is my weakness for the 1st quarter because I think I made a lot of mistakes such as awkward sentence structure. I am going to improve this weakness by planning to read over my essay to find mistakes in sentence structure and learn more about structuring a sentence.
Thoreau’s Walden VS Dillard
I have experienced Dillard and Thoreau’s message. When Thoreau mentioned “An honest man has hardly need to count more than his ten fingers, or in extreme cases he may add his ten toes, and lump the rest” text trigger my experiences when I take things too seriously due to its complexity. Sometimes, I personally overthink a specific topic that will distract me on concentrating other important stuff. This connection interacts with the text from Thoreau, “In the midst of this chopping sea of civilized life, such are the clouds and storms and quicksands and thousand and one items to be allowed for, that a man has to live, if he would not founder and go to the bottom and not make his port at all, by dead reckoning, and he must be a great calculator indeed who succeeds.” I agree with Thoreau’s thesis because he motivate me to stop over think on specific topic. On the other hand, I also connected to Dillard’s messages of instinct.When I am in an act of some situation that uses survival skills, I use instinct to survive . For example, when I was young, I lost my mom in the mall, I was terrified, but my instinct helps me survive by asking the mall’s security guard to announce a lost child. My philosophies on life is to live as simple as possible because people tends to be distracted by complications which will lower our quality lives as we forget about important stuff. I believed that living in modestly and simple word will affect everyone’s lives, leading to a superior lifestyle. But keep in mind, never try too hard to achieve simplicity because it will hurt you by trying too hard, leading to complications.
Thoreau’s thesis on simplicity and Dillard’s thesis on instinct are both relevant to today’s world because humans are struggling with using their instinct since complexity distracts them. People continue to live lives of routine being struck in a rut. Instinct is simplicity as it is naturally adapted in humans; technology is complexity because we weren't born with it and we will need time to adapt it into our lives; this causes us to lose our focus on concentrate in simplicity and the environment around us. We are glued to our smartphones and are distracted by our reliance on technology. For an example, waking to a phone to check on the weather app instead of using our born instinct to recognize and analyze the weather. Most people are addicted to technology and social media that causes them to lost track in work. According to Dillard’s and Thoreau's lessons, we should follow their lessons to live our lives without routine, complexity, and distractions.
Work Cited:
Dillard, Annie. "Living Like Weasels."Imprints 12
Eds.Kathy evans, Janet Hannaford & Stuart
Poyntz Toronto : (lage Learning.2002 106-108 Print.
Thoreau, Henry David. Excerpt from Walden
American Literature, Newyork : Holt McDoligal.2012 380-387 Print
In Henry David Thoreau’s Walden and Dillard’s “Living like Weasels,” the authors explore what it means to live an authentic life. Thoreau discusses his life as one’s simplicity. While Dillard’s discusses instinct. Thoreau states he went to the “woods because [he]wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, living is so dear; nor did [he] wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary”. Thoreau’s message of humanity, expresses the need for peace and simplicity, instead of complications. He also asserts living life without routines. On the other hand, Dillard concentrates on the law of nature and she recommends readers to use their instinct at the right time. She uses an anecdote of a weasel to help readers understand the need for instinct. For example, Dillard states: “A weasel doesn’t attack” anything, a weasel lives as he’s meant to , yielding at every moment to the perfect freedom of single necessity’’. She explains that a weasel is a calm creature but it won't let go when it attacks its prey or enemies due to its instinct, protecting itself. She makes a connection between human and a weasels stating that human should live their life with instinct.
Thoreau expresses his feelings for nature as much as Dillard, Thoreau uses instinct, “My instinct tells me that my head is an organ for burrowing, as some creatures use their snout and fore-paws, and with in it I would mine and burrow my way through these hills.”Thoreau's “let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or thousand; instead of a million count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumbnail”. The quote means that cutting out unnecessary complications can keep our lives organized. Both authors claim that through nature we can learn life’s fundamental feelings.