Journal 11

Journal 11 - Selections from Walden

Write a summary of the following selections and identify a direct quote that you feel best expresses its main idea.

“Where I Lived and What I Lived For” (232)

- Only to live the essentials
- Essentials
o Water (pond near his home)
o Shelter (15 x 10 simple built shed)
o Food (natural)
o Clothes

- Not to worry about the little things
- Simplicity
- Self-reliant and efficient
-





Quote:
“I went to the woods to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life… and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived”.




“Sounds” (234)

In this passage the narrator simply sits and listens to the sounds of the day. He hears the sounds of nature and the sounds of society. He comes to the realization that most of society is in search of amusement. People chase amusments such as going to the theater and socializing. The narrator shares that instead of involving themselves in different actitivties, they would instead be amused by being still and listening to the sounds.




Quote: “I had this advantage, at least, in my mode of life, over those who were obligateded to look abroad for amusement, to society and the theater, that my life itself was become my amusment and never ceased to be novel”
(pg. 244)




“Brute Neighbors” (235)
- The supreme example of trancedental art
- For thematic purposes, Thoreau condenses his two years at Walden Pond into one year (summer-spring)





Quote:
“I went to the woods to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life… and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”




“The Pond in Winter” (237)
Pond froze over
- People are fishing in the frozen pond
- We go out into nature to experience it for ourselves. The fishermans’ lives are simple and not artificial
- Nature and life is still thriving even in the winter when everything seems to be gone
-






Quote: “Early in the morning, while all things are crisp with frost, men come with fishing reels and slender lunch, and let down their fine lines through the snowy field to take pickerel and perch; wild men, who instinctively follow other fashions and trust other authorities than their townsmen, and by their goings and coming stitch towns together in parts where else they would be ripped”.




“Spring” (238)
- Everything is starting to renew and change with the beginning of spring
- He could never match the wise old man with his experience and knowledge







Quote: “As every season seems best to us in its turn, so the coming in of spring is like the creation of cosmos out of Chaos and the realization of the golden age”