I'm reading Thoreau's "Where I lived and What I lived For-"Solitude and Conclusion."

Question

I don't understand how to answer this question.

What does he compare man and his life to?
Thank you

Answer 1

http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=thoreau+%22where+I+lived%22

Read two or three of these sites that help analyze literature. Let us know what you think.

Answer 2

After I posted the question I went back and reread the one part. Does he compare man and himself to ants and like pygmies we fight with cranes?

Correct or not?

Answer 3

Yes, I think you're right:

"Still we live meanly, like ants; though the fable tells us that we were long ago changed into men; like pygmies we fight with cranes; it is error upon error, and clout upon clout, and our best virtue has for its occasion a superfluous and evitable wretchedness. Our life is frittered away by detail."
http://thoreau.eserver.org/walden02.html

Answer 4

Thank you-I reposted a new post so please disregard it-thank you again