Cape Cod
... The book Cape Cod is a non-fiction book that focuses on both natural sciences and history. It is a true story about Henry David Thoreau’s experiences visiting the island of Cape Cod. If his narrative can be said to have a theme, it is the contrast between the sea and land, and the extent to which the lives of Cape Codders are amphibian (Krutch ix). Basically, Thoreau explains his experiences at Cape Cod in-depth to the readers about events and observations he had witnessed during his journeys to the island. He writes about his experiences on walking excursions around Cape Cod during the mid 1800’s in which he described much about the unspoiled nature present throughout the Cape at that time. ... Thoreau starts off the book by talking about his reasons for visiting Cape Cod, which was to get a good view of the sea, and then gradually gets into speaking about his long walking journeys across the island. ... Thoreau’s narrative describes his vacation to Cape Cod and the sites he witnessed, similar to where one who takes a vacation visits museums or statues and buys postcards dealing with what was significant or beautiful. The setting of this book was decorously described by Thoreau in the opening pages of this book as, “the bared and bended arm of Massachusetts: the shoulder at Buzzard’s Bay; the elbow, or crazy bone, at Cape Mallebarre; the wrist at Truro; and the sandy fist at Provincetown- behind which the State stands on her guard, with her back to the Green Mountains, and her feet planted on the floor of the ocean…” He used this to address the location of Cape Cod. ... During his adventures to Cape Cod he mentions bringing along a few companions with him but does not go into much detail about them. ... He went through so much in the cities of Cape Cod traveling miles across the Cape several times, gaining much intelligence and becoming a more mature writer because of that. Thoreau was thirty-three years old when he took his first trip to Cape Cod and loved nature, especially the ocean and the land. He was very determined to gain knowledge about the sea specifically, which is why he went to Cape Cod. ... With preparing for the journey by reading history and the accounts of previous travelers, Thoreau seemed to have knowledge of every aspect of Cape Cod. ... Thoreau met the old man during one of his journeys across the Cape and stopped to interview him. ... He had much pride in his hometown and compares many places, events, and objects of Cape Cod to that of Concord. However, Thoreau would never have expressed an opinion of his fellow citizens in Concord as favorable as the one he gives those who call Cape Cod home. For instance, he says, “So we took leave of Cape Cod and its inhabitants. ... They were particularly downright and good-humored…” What Thoreau represents to this story is that he gives much detail and excitement to the “simple things” in Cape Cod dealing with nature, and wakes them up by adding previous documents to backup his observations. ... For instance, living in Walden for twenty-six months self-sufficiently helped Thoreau feel a love of nature and observe the natural things on life, as he did on Cape Cod. ... For example, he was destined to go to Cape Cod to get a better view of the sea and learned so much from so many different people including the Wellfleet oysterman. ... Thoreau’s love for nature is shown in Cape Cod by going into much depth on objects such as trees and unfamiliar plants because he likes the nature style. ... For example, he mentions the word Cape is from the French cap; which is from the Latin caput, a head; which is, perhaps, from the verb capere, to take- that being the part by which we take hold of a thing. ... The tone Thoreau used in Cape Cod is smooth for the most part because he just spoke about various things he noticed chronologically.