Discussion Questions for
"Walking"
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Please read about these questions here.
Why does Thoreau think he must make "an extreme statement" in regard to Nature and "absolute freedom and wildness"? (p. 49)
What does Thoreau mean by the "art of Walking" and "sauntering"? (p. 49)
What does it mean to be "equally at home everywhere"? (p. 49)
Why does Thoreau say you "must be born into the family of the Walkers"? (p. 50)
Why does Thoreau think it is terrible to be confined in an office all day? (p. 51)
Thoreau thinks you have to be both physically and spiritually in the woods. What does he mean by this? (p. 52)
Thoreau says that cutting down the trees makes the landscape "more and more tame and cheap." What does he mean by this? (p. 53)
What do you think it means to live "Close to the bone"? (p. 55)
Thoreau writes:
But possibly the day will come when it will be partitioned off into so-called pleasure grounds, in which a few will take a narrow and exclusive pleasure only,—when fences shall be multiplied, and man traps and other engines invented to confine men to the public road; and walking over the surface of God’s earth, shall be construed to mean trespassing on some gentleman’s grounds. To enjoy a thing exclusively is commonly to exclude yourself from the true enjoyment of it. Let us improve our opportunities then before the evil days come. (p. 56)
Are we living in the "evil days" that Thoreau predicted would come? Why or why not?
Thoreau writes:
. . . we find it difficult to choose our direction, because it does not yet exist distinctly in our idea. (p. 56)
What do you think he means by this?
What is Thoreau saying about America on pages 59-60?
How do you think Thoreau would define "Wildness"? (p. 61)
Thoreau writes:
Yes; though you may think me perverse, if it were proposed to me to dwell in the neighborhood of the most beautiful garden that ever human art contrived, or else of a dismal swamp, I should certainly decide for the swamp. How vain then have been all your labors, citizens, for me! (p. 63)
What choice would you make and why?
Why does Thoreau rejoice that "men themselves have some wild oats still left to sow before they become submissive members of society"? (p. 67)
Thoreau writes:
I do not know that this higher knowledge amounts to anything more definite than a novel and grand surprise on a sudden revelation of the insufficiency of all that we called Knowledge before—a discovery that there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamed of in our philosophy. (69)
What does he mean by this? Do you agree or disagree? Why?
Thoreau writes:
"That is active duty," says the Vishnu Purana, "which is not for our bondage; that is knowledge which is for our liberation; all other duty is good only unto weariness; all other knowledge, is only the cleverness of an artist." (p.70)
What does the Vishn Purana mean by this?
Why does Thoreau say that "we cannot afford not to live in the present"? (p. 73)
Did you agree with this essay? Why or why not?
How would you describe Henry David Thoreau based upon this essay?
©2005-2012 Glen Draeger (all rights reserved)
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