ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

Detailed explanation-1: -“Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.”

Detailed explanation-2: -Thoreau chooses to use ants as a metaphor to make it clear to the reader that war is futile, pointless, and a waste of life. “The Battle of the Ants” begins with Thoreau casually walking out to his wood-pile as he stumbles upon the battle between the red ants and the black ants.

Detailed explanation-3: -One day when I went out to my wood-pile, or rather my pile of stumps, I observed two large ants, the one red, the other much larger, nearly half an inch long, and black, fiercely contending with one another. Having once got hold they never let go, but struggled and wrestled and rolled on the chips incessantly.

Detailed explanation-4: -Thoreau’s central message in Walden is to live simply, independently, and wisely.