Spoon River Anthology

"The Hill", which is an excerpt from "Spoon River Anthology",  was a very good teacher of a very common lesson.  Edgar Masters talked about five main men and their occupations and how each one had to do with their life. The five characteristics were: weak of will, the strong of arm, the clown, the boozer, and the fighter (Masters).  Masters goes on to explain how each man died from their characteristic, most of them being a shameful death at that.  Personally, I know I would not want to be known as someone that constantly drinks heavily, but someone happy and always having a smile on their face.  He uses the characteristics or hobbies of these five men to show that "you are what you eat."  Not specifically that, but that whatever you spend the most of your time doing is how you will be known by others and if you are doing something you dont want other people to know you by, you should stop doing that and  find something else.


Thoreau's writings relate to this because Thoreau was a big believer of problem solving.  We all have read the stories of him being arrested for protesting and not paying his taxes because he was trying to fix a problem with the government.  He believed that society as a whole was way too occupied in the wrong things and the things that we enjoy, and not in the things that are important in living a healthy, everyday life.  A good example of when this happens is many young adults.  Once they graduate from college, they think they can go back to living their lives as teenagers and spending their money left and right when in reality they cant.  College cost so much money, and most of them will have student loans to pay off, but many of those students wont have any money because they have blown it all partying.  They need to get their priorities straight and start building a healthy life style.






Becker, Geraldine Cannon. "Spoon River Anthology." In Anderson, George P., Judith S. Baughman, Matthew J. Bruccoli, and Carl Rollyson, eds. Encyclopedia of American Literature, Revised Edition: Into the Modern: 1896–1945, Volume 3. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2008. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. 6 March 2012.


Masters, Edgar L. "The Hill." Bartleby.com: Great Books Online. Web. 6 Mar. 2012.