In paragraphs three and four of “Where I Lived and What I Lived For” in Walden, how does Thoreau contrast the way he lives with the way others live?
Which best states the overall structure of Walden?
Read the excerpt from Walden.I am on the alert for the first signs of spring, to hear the chance note of some arriving bird, or the striped squirrel’s chirp, for his stores must be now nearly exhausted, or see the woodchuck venture out of his winter quarters.How do the images in the excerpt relate to Thoreau’s overall quest in Walden?
Read the excerpt from Walden.[A]s the sun arose, I saw it [the pond] throwing off its nightly clothing of mist, and here and there, by degrees, its soft ripples or its smooth reflecting surface was revealed, while the mists, like ghosts, were stealthily withdrawing in every direction into the woods, as at the breaking up of some nocturnal conventicle [secret meeting].In the excerpt, Thoreau uses imagery to describe
Read the excerpt from the “Conclusion” of Walden.I learned this, at least, by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. He will put some things behind, will pass an invisible boundary; new, universal, and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves around and within him; or the old laws be expanded, and interpreted in his favor in a more liberal sense, and he will live with the license of a higher order of beings.What belief about life is being described in this excerpt?
Read the excerpt from Walden.Standing on the snow-covered plain, as if in a pasture amid the hills, I cut my way first through a foot of snow, and then a foot of ice, and open a window under my feet, where, kneeling to drink, I look down into the quiet parlor of the fishes, pervaded by a softened light as through a window of ground glass, with its bright sanded floor the same as in summer; there a perennial waveless serenity reigns as in the amber twilight sky, corresponding to the cool and even temperament of the inhabitants. Heaven is under our feet is well as over our heads.Which best describes the purpose of the imagery in this excerpt?
Read the excerpt from Walden.Hardly a man takes a half-hour’s nap after dinner, but when he wakes he holds up his head and asks, “What’s the news?” as if the rest of mankind had stood his sentinels [soldiers].Which best describes the “man” Thoreau refers to in the excerpt?
Read the excerpt from Walden.Why should we live with such hurry and waste of life? We are determined to be starved before we are hungry. Men say that a stitch in time saves nine, and so they take a thousand stitches today to save nine tomorrow.How does the excerpt relate to today’s culture?
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