Walden Study Guide Questions with 100% Correct Answers

Walden Study Guide Questions with 100% Correct Answers Why do you think Thoreau singles out individual groups of readers as he begins his first essay? -Answer-Because he wants to answer specific questions that they ask. What does Thoreau mean when he says that "the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation?" Is that still true today? -Answer-"What is called resignation is confirmed desperation. From the desperate city you go into the desperate country and have to console yourself with the bravery of minks and muskrats. But it is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things" (6). What does Thoreau's story about the Indian basket weaver illustrate about his views on capitalism? -Answer-"I studied rather how to avoid the necessity of selling them" (17). What does Thoreau mean by saying "I am sure there is a greater anxiety, commonly, to have fashionable, or at least clean and un patched clothes, than to have a sound conscience"? -Answer-"Most behave as if they believe that their prospects for life would be ruined if they should have a patch or flaw" (19). Thoreau says it is an interesting question "how far men would retain their relative rank if they were divested of their clothes". Why do people need to tell others their rank simply by their clothes? Do ideas such as wearing uniforms help curtail some of this snobbery? -Answer-When someone is wealthy they usually have really nice and expensive clothes because they can afford it. But if you are poor, one tends to use their money for more important necessities such as food. Yes when people wear uniforms they are bonded and equal. What is Thoreau's opinion of the manner in which American people approach home ownership versus renting? -Answer-"You could sit up as late as you pleased, and whenever you got up, go abroad without any landlord or house lord dogging you for rent" (26). Thoreau asks, "Would the savage be wise to exchange his wigwam for a palace on these terms?" What do you think his answer might be? -Answer-I think Thoreau would say "If we suppose him to pay a rent instead, this is but a doubtful choice of evils" (28). Why does Thoreau say, to a painter, that the most interesting dwellings are the homes of the common poor rather than the greater architectural feats? -Answer-"But a man as no more to do with the style of architecture of his house than a tortoise with that of its shell" (43). Explain what Thoreau means by the following statement "The student who secures his coveted leisure and retirement by systematically shirking any labor necessary to man obtains but an ignoble and unprofitable leisure, defrauding himself of the experience which alone can make leisure fruitful". -Answer-"I mean that they should play life, or study it merely while the community supports them at this expensive game, but earnestly live it from beginning to end" (47). Explain Thoreau's philosophy on farming as expressed in his sentence, "I believe that [I did] better than any farmer in Concord did that year". -Answer-"All things considered, that is, considering the importance of a man's soul and of today not withstand the start time occupied by my experiment, nay, partly even because of its transient character, I believe that that was doing better than any farmer in Concord did that year" (51). Why did Thoreau react harshly when his young acquaintance wants to live life as he does? -Answer-"I desire to speak impartially on this point, and as one not interested in the success or failure of the present economical and social arrangements" (51). How does Thoreau obtain his furniture? -Answer-"My furniture part of which I made myself, and the rest cost me nothing of which I have not rendered on account, consisted of a bed, a desk, three chairs, and etc" (60). During the previous five years, how did Thoreau support himself? -Answer-"For more than five years I maintained myself solely by the labor of my hands, and I found, that by working about six weeks in a year, I could meet all the expenses of living. The whole of my winters, as well as most summers, I had free and clear for study" (64). How does Thoreau feel about philanthropy and why does he choose not to participate in it? -Answer-"I have made some sacrifices to a sense of duty, and among other have sacrificed this pleasure also. However, when I have thought to indulge myself in this respect, and lay their Heaven under an obligation by maintaining certain poor persons in all respects as comfortably as I maintain myself" (67)