Henry David Thoreau

Discussion Questions:

1.) Does Walden appeal to our "sense of rebelliousness and individualism"? Are we "inspired by his idealistic actions and principled and good-humored erudition"? Do we enjoy thinking about how we might take a more "Thoreauvian approach" to our own lives?

2.) How do modern conveniences and gadgets influence our culture? After reading Thoreau, are we now eager to give them up?

3.) Can we consider how doing and thinking for ourselves is made possible (or impeded) by modern educational and cultural institutions?

4.) To which "genre" (or genres) does Walden belong?

5.) What is Thoreau's relationship to his audience and to society as a whole? How does he situate his narrative persona? That is, what kind of person is the "I" in the text, and how do we know?

6.) How can Walden be considered as an application of Transcendental philosophy?

7.) Choose one tenet of transcendentalism and explain how Thoreau affirms, complicates, or rejects it in a chapter in Walden.

8.) Locate passages in the text that seem directly comparable to one of the other authors we've read -- especially Emerson, but possibly also others, like Franklin. How does Thoreau use one or more of the ideas of this author?

9.) Discuss the way that Walden redefines a familiar word, such as economy, travel, or shelter.

10.) Since Thoreau's text proceeds from the central metaphor of Walden Pond (in the same way that Whitman's "Song of Myself" on p. 1238 proceeds from a blade of grass), how does each chapter of Walden define some overlooked philosophical or metaphorical aspect of nature?

11.) How can Walden be considered as a response to the "runaway train of nineteenth-century growth, industrialization, mass agriculture, and capitalist values?

12.) Consider Thoreau's work as a reformist response to one of the following:

 

Notes:

1.) Different views of nature at this time:

"Emerson views nature as a cipher for the sacred"

"Capitalists and industrialists view nature as raw material for profit and development"

"Thoreau considers what it means for humans to be a part of nature"

2.) Possible genres:

Nature writing

Philosophy

Social critique

Memoir

Extensive Use of Metaphor