of the ways in which Thoreau demonstrates metaphorically his argument for a fully examined life is through the use of John Farmer, who sits one day after work thinking about his labor (186). Thoreau believes that we must vigorously examine the things we hold important in life and ask ourselves who has determined that these things are important. He feels that we have allowed other people to determine the defining aspects of our life and that, consequently, we have become alienated from the true meaning of our lives. Thus, as John Farmer thinks about the labor he has performed, the notes of a flute played in the vicinity distract his minds from those thoughts and hint at a greater significance to his life. He begins to realize that his labor is "no more than the scurf of his skin, which was constantly shuffled off" (Thoreau 186). Thoreau constantly questions the relationship between men and their labor and the production from such labor because, in a related metaphor, he states that men have become the tools of their tools (Thoreau 29). They have failed to realize that most of the luxuries and many of the so-called "comforts of life," are not only not indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind (Thoreau 10). This external labor of man has nothing to do with the development of his true self. Rather, as Thoreau's extended metaphor explains, labor serves to plow the better part of man "into the soil for compost" (3).
Thoreau gives the metaphor of the tailoress to demonstrate civilization's emphasis on the outward appearance of things with no concern for the rot that may be forming at the core. He tells of how when he asked for a particular garment the tailoress responded th
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