Walden Study Guide UPDATED ACTUAL Exam Questions and CORRECT ANSWERS
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Course
Walden
Institution
Walden
Walden Study Guide UPDATED ACTUAL
Exam Questions and CORRECT
ANSWERS
Why do you think Thoreau singles out individual groups of readers as he begins his first
essay? - CORRECT ANSWER- Because he wants to answer specific questions that they
ask.
What does Thoreau mean when he says that "the...
Walden Study Guide UPDATED ACTUAL
Exam Questions and CORRECT
ANSWERS
Why do you think Thoreau singles out individual groups of readers as he begins his first
essay? - CORRECT 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? - CORRECT 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? - CORRECT 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"? -
CORRECT 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? - CORRECT
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? - CORRECT 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? - CORRECT 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? - CORRECT 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". - CORRECT 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". - CORRECT 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? -
CORRECT 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? - CORRECT 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? - CORRECT 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? -
CORRECT ANSWER- ✔✔"I have made some sacrifices to a sense of duty, and among other
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