Name: _______________________________________________
Henry David Thoreau –
“Where I Lived, and What I Lived For” from Walden
Reading Questions – pages 380-386
Directions: Answers must be in legible, complete sentences to receive credit.
Author Background
1. How did Thoreau try to live his life? (How were his views different from those of society?)
Live by his own values; thought society was largely materialistic
2. Describe how Thoreau demonstrated his nonconformist character in his life. Provide at least two examples in your
explanation.
Wore green jacket when required to wear black; refused to physically discipline students; retreated to Walden Pond
3. In what way was Thoreau a social reformer?
Involved in abolitionist movement; lectured at anti-slavery rallies; conductor on Underground Railroad, and publically
defended John Brown
“Where I Lived, and What I Lived For”
4. In your own words, why did Thoreau go to the woods?
“live deliberately” and simply; learn from nature
5. Translate the following quote into your own words: “I wanted to live deep and suck out the marrow of life.”
6. What does the word “mean” mean when Thoreau uses it in the context of this excerpt? (Footnotes will help!)
Inferior in quality, value, or importance
7. What does Thoreau mean when he says he wants “to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if
it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish it to the world; or if it were
sublime, to know it by experience, and to be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion”? Paraphrase it in
your own words.
8. What does Thoreau mean when he says “we live meanly like ants” and “our lives are frittered away by detail”?
9. Thoreau uses and extended metaphor likening civilized life to a rough sea. What might the clouds and storms of life
be? How might one “founder and go to the bottom” in civilized life?
Problems with family/job/school
Lose a job, fail in school, overlook the meaning of life
10. What is Thoreau’s opinion of the news?
He believes people read it too much and place too much importance on it. He also believes that almost all news is the
same and needless to repeat similar stories.
11. In Thoreau’s time, a receiver of a letter would need to pay the postage. Why does Thoreau believe about the post
office?
He could do without it because most mail is not worth the postage
12. Thoreau is a transcendentalist, agreeing with many precepts of the Romantic era. What does Thoreau mean
when he says “I have always been regretting that I was not as wise as the day I was born”? In other words,
what does Thoreau believe is the effect of civilization and learning on a young child?
Thoreau believes that education and learning only muddles a child’s brain because it distances him/her from
intuition and spiritual awareness.
13. Thoreau writes, “My instinct tells me that my head is an organ for burrowing, as some creatures use their
snout and forepaws, and with it I would mine and burrow my way.” How does Thoreau feel that he can find
some of the answers about life he seeks?
Use his head/intellect to think about things in nature to discover the answers
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