Summary: (Amazon): The work is part personal declaration of independence, social experiment, voyage of spiritual discovery, satire, and manual for self-reliance. It details Thoreau's experiences over the course of two years in a cabin he built near Walden Pond, amid woodland owned by his friend and mentor Ralph Waldo Emerson, near Concord, Massachusetts.
Current Reviews and Articles for the Bicentennial and more:
Washington Post: "Why I Still Love Henry David Thoreau, 'Walden'": https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/why-i-still-love-henry-david-thoreaus-walden/2017/07/12/7b52c35e-66fc-11e7-9928-22d00a47778f_story.html?utm_term=.614cd5c9f42a
The New Yorker: "Pond Scum":
The New York Times: "The True American":
The New York Times: "What's the Muck of Walden Pond tells us about our Planet" :
The Guardian, "Pee and pesticides: Thoreau's Walden Pond in Trouble" :https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/apr/06/pee-and-pesticides-henry-david-thoreau-walden-pond-in-trouble-warn-scientists
The Walden Woods Project: https://www.walden.org/thoreau/
The Thoreau Society: https://www.thoreausociety.org/
Walden Quotes:
"Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influence of the earth."
"Things do not change; we change."
"Books are the treasured wealth of the world and the fit inheritance of generations and nations."
Discussion Questions: (Questions written by and discussion to be led by Richard Myers)
1.
Why did
Thoreau go to Walden? Was he, as some
people have claimed, a recluse or hermit?
2.
Would you consider doing something similar
today?
3.
What do you think of his claim in the section on
“Economy” that “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation”? Does this equally apply to today?
4.
Have “men become the tools of their tools” as
Thoreau claims?
5.
How might we follow Thoreau’s admonition to
“simplify, simplify” today?
6.
How does Thoreau’s observation that “there are a
thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root”
apply to his time? To our time?
7.
How might you, or most Americans today, respond
to Thoreau’s thought that “I never found the companion that was so
companionable as solitude”? How do you
think Thoreau would respond to our constantly noisy world today?
8.
What technology does Thoreau focus on as an
intrusion into the peace of Walden Pond?
How does this fit into the idea of the Anthropocene (not a term Thoreau
would have been familiar with)? Is there
a similar technology you would point to today as being particularly disruptive
of society?
9.
In the section, “The Ponds,” Thoreau claims that
“a lake is the landscape’s most beautiful and expressive feature.” What aspect of the landscape particularly
attracts you?
10. Would
you agree with Thoreau when he states, “I have no doubt that is part of the
destiny of the human race. . . to leave off eating animals.”?
11. What
is your favorite section or idea in Walden?
