Henry David Thoreau Study Guide

Henry David Thoreau Study Guide Directions: Answer all of the following questions as thoroughly as possible. You will need these questions/answers to study for your test. from “Where I lived, and What I lived For” (237-8) 1. Reread the first sentence on page 237. What effect does the first-person point of view have on this sentence?

2. Based on the second paragraph, what do you think Thoreau hopes to find through his solitude in the natural world?

3. What is the point of Thoreau’s figurative language in the third paragraph on page 237?

4. What comparison does Thoreau make at the bottom of page 237 and top of 238?

from “Solitude” (238)

5. What does Thoreau “thoroughly enjoy” as it rains heavily?

6. Does Thoreau feel lonely while in solitude? Explain.

7. According to Thoreau, what benefits does solitude offer the individual?

8. Do you feel that Thoreau’s ideas are outdated, or are his beliefs still valid today? from “Conclusion” (243-4) 9. In the final excerpt, what reason does Thoreau give for leaving the woods?

10. What does Thoreau say he learned by his “experiment”? Memorable Quotations

1. “Our life is frittered away by . An honest man has hardly need to count more than his ten fingers, or in extreme cases he may add his ten toes, and lump the rest” (237).

2. “We do not ride on the railroad; it rides upon ” (237).

3. I have found that no exertion of the can bring two nearer to one another” (238).

4. “It is remarkable how easily and insensibly we fall into a particular route, and make a for ourselves” (243).

5. “If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different ” (243).

6. “I learned this, at least, by my experiment; that if one 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” (243).