HENRY DAVID THOREAU
Reading Guide: “Where I Lived and What I Lived For”
(Chapter Two from Walden)
Henry David Thoreau (1817 – 1862)
1. What two events in Thoreau’s live have established him in popular American
literary history?
2. What would you say were Thoreau’s occupations?
3. Note that critics today are still debating just what Walden is: (a) autobiography,
(2) inspirational writing, (3) document on transcendentalism, (4) nature book, (5)
work of art, (6) an experiment in ecology, (7) a rebirth ritual, (8) escape literature,
(9) religious writing/sacred text.
4. Here are some of Thoreau’s stylistic devices in Walden:
a. metaphor
b. simile
c. symbol
d. personification
e. pun
f. paradox
g. epizeuxis
h. anaphora
i. sentence balance
j. rhetorical questions
k. allusions
l. quotations
“Where I Lived and What I Lived For” (1854)
1. What is Thoreau’s perspective on ownership of property and other material
possessions?
2. Although Thoreau never obtained a deed to the Hollowell farm, how did he
eventually “possess” it?
3. Thoreau calls his time at Walden an experiment. It was an experiment in what?
4. When did Thoreau move to the woods? How is this date symbolic?
5. Describe Thoreau’s living space.
6. What does Thoreau mean when he says that he wants to “wake my neighbors
up”? What might his statement reveal about one of his writing purposes?
7. What is the significance of the morning to Thoreau?
8. What were some of Thoreau’s motives for moving into the woods at Walden
Pond?
9. What are some of Thoreau’s complaints about modern life?
10. What are some of Thoreau’s ideas on how we should live our lives?