1a. According to Thoreau, age alone does not qualify people to be teachers of the young. Why not?
2a. Describe the area in which Thoreau built his home.
3a. Why did Thoreau decide to live in the woods for a while? Why did he decide to leave?
4a. In what ways do you think Thoreau heard "a different drummer"?
5a. What is Thoreau's attitude towards work and progress? Do you agree or disagree with this philosophy? Explain your answer.
1b. Explain why Thoreau encourages us to examine our assumptions and "to give up our prejudices." Describe his attitudes toward what older people consider to be conventional wisdom.
2b. What evidence suggests that Thoreau was not interested in expending much money or time in building a home that others would admire?
3b. What does Thoreau mean when he urges the reader to "Simplify, simplify"?
4b. What did Thoreau learn from his experiment of life in the woods?
5b. If every person lived by Thoreau's philosophy that each person should only be concerned with his or her own business, how would the development of society be affected?
Aphorism. Explain why the two aphorisms listed in Understanding Literature are still popular today.
Tone. Read the statements provided in Understanding Literature. What attitude toward the reader is implied with these statements? Whom does Thoreau expect to be his reader? How does he expect his reader to react to these statements?
1. Imagine that Thoreau has "left the woods" and wants to sell his small house there. Write a real estate ad accurately describing the building and highlighting its advantages. Assume you are hoping to attract a buyer with similar values as your own. Use your own paper as necessary.
2. An epitaph is an inscription on a tomb or gravestone in memory of the person buried there. Write an epitaph for Henry David Thoreau. Use your own paper as necessary.
3. Blues music uses a melancholy style to express sadness. Choose a quote from the selection and paraphrase it into a stanza or two of blues lyrics. Use your own paper as necessary.
Simplifying Sentences. Revise the sentences below, following Thoreau's edict to "Simplify, simplify."
1. The usual picture we get from Walden is that Thoreau lived a rather solitary life by himself.
2. However, many journal entries show how the neighbors who lived around Walden Pond were an important part of the writer's life.
3. For example, one neighbor lent Thoreau an axe, and he was careful to sharpen that axe before he returned the tool when he was finished with it.
4. Thoreau also notes that he had pleasant chats when he talked with people who were taking walks in his woods.
5. The passage about his contract with James Collins, in which he made a bargain with Collins to buy the boards of the Irishman's shanty, is amusing and makes the reader laugh.
