1820-1865: Short Answer Quiz

Henry David Thoreau, Walden


  1. Consider Thoreau’s delight in the senses (he records how good the beans he plants taste, for example, and notes with relish that he spreads pine resin on the bread that he bakes) together with the strong strain of asceticism in the following passage: “It is desirable that a man be clad so simply that he can lay his hands on himself in the dark, and that he live in all respects so compactly and preparedly, that, if an enemy take the town, he can, like the old philosopher, walk out the gate empty-handed without anxiety” (1819). Do you see a contradiction between a delight in the senses when living in nature and this desire for a stripped-down, bare, and simple life?

  1. Here is Thoreau’s first description of the Walden landscape: “Near the end of March, 1845, I borrowed an axe and went down to the woods by Walden Pond, nearest to where I intended to build my house, and began to cut down some tall arrowy white pines, still in their youth, for timber...It was a pleasant hillside where I worked, covered with pine woods, through which I looked out on the pond, and a small open field in the woods where pines and hickories were springing up” (1828). Describe what Thoreau finds pleasant about this landscape. Why does Walden Pond fit his needs? Why should he have chosen this particular pond and woods?

  1. At several points in the narrative, Thoreau sets data apart from the rest of the text in tables and charts. Why should he itemize things like his farm’s expenses, his season’s profits, a list of his groceries and provisions, and so on? What does he gain by such specificity?

  1. “Every morning was a cheerful invitation to make my life of equal simplicity, and I may say innocence, with Nature herself. I have been as sincere a worshipper of Aurora as the Greeks. I got up early and bathed in the pond; that was a religious exercise, and one of the best things which I did” (1854). Thoreau’s morning ritual cleanses and renews him, but consider that it must be done every morning. Now think about the project of Walden alongside the temporary quality of this morning bath: is this a life-changing text that has its effect immediately and forever or one that we must read every year or so to stay innocent?

  1. Thoreau describes solitude and visitors in sequence. Of solitude he says “I find it wholesome to be alone the greater part of the time. To be in company, even with the best, is soon wearisome and dissipating. I love to be alone. I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude” (1879). But in the next chapter he describes the delight he takes in visitors. How does Thoreau’s conscious pursuit of quiet and solitude result in a better appreciation of society?



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