Walden

These prompts can be used for in-class discussion, exploratory free-writing, or reflection homework before or after reading the book.

Personal Response Prompt

Thoreau advocated for living a “simple life.” What does a “simple life” mean to you? What material goods, services, and activities do and do not comprise a simple life? How is your life simple or not simple? How might you live your life more simply?

Teaching Suggestion: This prompt guides student to think/write about one of Thoreau’s major arguments—live life simply—from the perspective of the students’ life in the 21st century. The Wikipedia entry on “simple living” discusses the meaning of simple living from different perspectives and provides examples of simple living practices.

A Ted Talk on YouTube features David Bruno who discusses his book “The 100 Thing Challenge.”

Post-Reading Analysis

Some of Thoreau’s essays in Walden were written as lectures that he gave at the Concord Lyceum. Perhaps this initial context explains why his writing sometimes takes on a patronizing, “holier-than-thou” tone. Identify one example of Thoreau using a moralizing or patronizing tone, and then respond as you imagine Thoreau’s “silent others” might have responded. What do Thoreau’s criticisms of others indicate about his own prejudices?

Teaching Suggestion: The primary example of Thoreau’s moralizing tone is during his interactions with Irish immigrant John Field and his wife (Chapter 10, Baker Farm). However, there are several other instances where Thoreau is judgmental of others in order to extol the virtues of a simple life. Guide students to critically examine the text by taking on the perspective of the “silent others”—those who are criticized by Thoreau but whose voices are minimalized or silenced within the text.

1. men who desire fine houses (Chapter 1, Economy)

2. immigrants who cart their belongings with them (Chapter 1, Economy)

3. people who have not read the “ancient classics”—meaning Greek and Latin (Chapter 3, Reading)

4. a wealthy townsman who asked him why he decided to “give up so many of the comforts of life” (Chapter 5, Solitude)

5. a simple French-Canadian woodsman (Chapter 6, Visitors)

6. self-styled reformers, “the greatest bores of all” (Chapter 6, Visitors)

7. travelers who criticized his bean fields (Chapter 7, The Bean-Field)

8. villagers who sit and gossip (Chapter 8, The Village)

9. tax collectors (Chapter 8, The Village)

10. the “unclean and stupid farmer” who named Flint’s Pond (Chapter 9, The Ponds)

11. people who eat meat (Chapter 11, Higher Laws)

12. hosts who do not open up their homes freely to visitors (Chapter 13, House-Warming)

13. the gentleman farmer who hired men to haul ice from Walden Pond (Chapter 16, The Pond in Winter)

14. men who blindly follow unjust “laws of society” (Chapter 18, Conclusion)

15. readers who want writers to use simple language (Chapter 18, Conclusion)