michellehrusso.weebly.commichellehrusso.weebly.com/uploads/3/1/5/...and_kinship… · Web viewLady . Antebellum’s ... Well HELLO WORLD Everyday I drive by a little white church,

NOTEBOOK CHECK 1: Handling Stress

1. Do you ever “go somewhere” to escape everyday life? Where do you go? What do you do?

2. What else do you do when the pressure gets too intense?

1. What happens in life is mostly controlled by … Fate or chance (0 points) Personal choices (1point)

2. When something bad happens to me … I tend to think about it over and over (0

points) I am able to put it behind me and move on

(1 point)3. When I am feeling stressed …

Most everyone around me can tell (0 points)

Only those whom I choose to tell will know (1 point)

4. I am comfortable expressing my ideas because others usually are interested in what I have to say.

Agree (1 point) Disagree (0 points)

5. Working hard every day … Is silly because the managers and owners

reap most of the rewards (0 points) Is the best way to get ahead (1 point)

6. When a task has me stuck and the deadline is approaching, I will …

Seek the advice of others (1 point) Work harder and faster (0 points)

7. Changes in routine or procedures are … Frustrating (0 points) Exciting (1 point)

8. What happens tomorrow depends mostly on … Those in charge (0 points) What I do today (1 point)

9. I have spent most of my life doing things that are worthwhile.


10. People who are wealthy … Are luckier than most others (0 points) Have what they worked for (1 point)

11. I tend to become very self-critical and blame myself when things go wrong.

Agree (0 points) Disagree (1 point)

12. When I have something unpleasant to do, I … Stick to it until it’s finished (1 point) Procrastinate (0 points)

13. Getting ahead depends on … Knowing the right people (0 points) Working hard (1 point)

14. I handle unexpected problems better than most people.


15. I am more energized when … Things are predictable and scheduled (0

points) Things are spontaneous and

unpredictable (1 point)16. It’s almost impossible for me to get things changed at work.


17. In a crisis I … Wait for someone to take charge and join

in (0 points) Usually take charge yourself (1 point)

18. When I am sad or afraid I … Keep it to myself (0 points) Have someone I can talk with (1 point)

19. If a friend or co-worker offends me or makes me angry, I …

Try to ignore it (0 points) Try to talk it out with him or her (1 point)

20. Most days, I find that life is … Predictable and not too exciting (0 points) Interesting and exciting (1 point)

21. I believe that a Higher Being has a plan or good purpose for my life.


22. Most truly successful people … Were born with special abilities (0 points) Were average people who learned how to

be successful (1 point)23. When I make plans, I’m sure that I can make them work.


24. It is hard for me to change a friend’s mind about something.


25. I avoid trying to learn new things when they look too complicated or difficult.


26. When someone is in emotional distress and in need of comfort …

I am comfortable providing such comfort (1 point)

I am uncomfortable providing such comfort (0 points)

27. When there are problems at work I tend to … Hang back and follow the lead of another

(0 points) Offer suggestions to improve the situation

(1 point)

28. It’s a good day at work when … Nothing bad happens (0 points) When I am faced with an interesting

challenge (1 point)

29. Being active and learning new things are encouraged in my family.


30. Life would be better if … I had fewer responsibilities (0 points) I had more responsibilities (1 point)

ResultsTotal your score. If your score is20 to 30 points: You are highly resilient. Indicators of resilience include how we perceive and value ourselves, our sense of purpose and adaptability, our influence on the world and those around us, and our passion and excitement for life.When faced with crisis or a vexing problem you engage, not retreat. You see the possibilities in difficult situations that others often miss. You are comfortable with who you are, believe that there is a purpose for your life, and seldom let past mistakes weigh you down or keep you from pursuing your goals. You have at least one special relationship in which you can trust and confide when the going gets tough. You feel that your opinions count and that you can make a difference. Under stress you adapt and somehow manage to maintain your sense of well-being.Although you handle stress and adversity well, if you ever have difficulty coping and want additional support, you may benefit from contacting your Employee Assistance Program (EAP).13 to 19 points: You are moderately resilient. Indicators of resilience include how we perceive and value ourselves, our sense of purpose and adaptability, our influence on the world and those around us, and our passion and excitement for life.You like working and living in an environment that is more organized and predictable, but when faced with crisis or a vexing problem you take it on rather than retreat. You are tough minded so you look for ways to improve difficult circumstances. You have at least one relationship in which you can trust and confide when the going gets tough but you are just as likely to keep your feelings to yourself. You believe that your opinions count and that your life has a purpose.Under stress you endure, buckle down and keep going. Still, if you ever have difficulty coping and want additional support, please consider consulting your Employee Assistance Program (EAP).0 to 12 points: Your resilience is low. Indicators of resilience include how we perceive and value ourselves, our sense of purpose and adaptability, our influence on the world and those around us, and our passion and excitement for life. Resilience is the result of numerous factors and life experiences so it tends to change as our experiences change.You dislike change, which makes you less resilient to the effects of stress and pressure. You perceive that those in power call the shots so you quite often look to others to solve problems. When faced with a crisis or complex problem you tend to avoid dealing with it directly and may seek relief by some means of escape—healthy or unhealthy.Under stress you may need the support of others to help keep things in perspective while you endure the troubled times. Take heart—millions of others are in the same boat. When faced with a stressful situation, please consider consulting your Employee Assistance Program (EAP) for help.

MUSIC SURVEYDo you listen to music? Yes NoIf yes, how often? Often Sometimes Rarely NeverWhat kind of music do you listen to? (Circle all that apply) Light sound Country Hard Rock/Metal Rock/Pop Classical Jazz

Metal R&B Alternative Rap Dance Christian

Gospel Christian Rock Latin Classic Rock Other

When do you listen to music?

Why do you listen to music?

Do you find your musical tastes are similar or different from your friends? Explain.

Your family? Explain.

Most teens? Explain.

What concerts have you attended in your life?

What songs/ CD’s have you bought/downloaded lately? How much money per month do you think you spend on CD’s? Concerts?

How much time per day do you think you spend listening to music?

Name your favorite band, musician, and/or singer.

NOTEBOOK CHECK 2: LADY ANTEBELLUM’S “HELLO WORLD”

Traffic crawls Cell Phone Calls Talk radio screams at me through my tinted window I see a little girl, rust red minivan She's got chocolate on her face Got little hands, and she waves at me, yeah she smiles at me.

Well Hello World How you been? Good to see you my old friend Sometimes I feel, Cold as steel Broken like I'm never gonna heal I see a light, a little hope in a little girl, Well HELLO WORLD

Everyday I drive by a little white church, it’s got these little white crosses like angels in the yard Maybe I should stop on in, say a prayer Maybe talk to God like he is there Oh I know he's there, Yeah I know he's there

Well Hello World How you been? Good to see you my old friend, Sometimes I feel as Cold as steel And broken like I'm never gonna heal I see a light, a little grace, little faith unfurl. Well Hello World

Sometimes I forget what living's for,

And I hear my life through my front door, and I'll be there, oh I'm home again I See my wife, little boy, little girl, Hello World

Hello World All the empty disappears I remember why I'm here Just surrender and believe I fall down on my knees Oh Hello World, Hello World, Hello World

Songwriters: Tony Mac Lane; Tom Douglas; David Cory Lee

(1) Paraphrase the lyrics of the song.

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(2) What annoyances does the speaker mention in the first verse of the song? _________________________________

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What suddenly catches his attention and deters him from focusing on these distractions?____________________

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How does this moment seem to change the way he has been feeling?____________________________________________

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(3) What catches the speaker’s attention in the second verse? ___________________________________________________

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What does this moment remind him of?____________________________________________________________________________

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(4) What is the significance of the third and fourth verses to the speaker’s life? In other words, what does

the speaker come to realize by the end of the song? _______________________________________________________________

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LADY ANTEBELLUM’S “HELLO WORLD” VIDEOBased on the song’s lyrics and the video’s message, what philosophical assumption about life do you believe the writers of this song and the directors of this video have? Use examples from lyrics and video to support your answer. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

NOTEBOOK CHECK 3: THE NATIONAL PERIOD aka AMERICAN ROMANTICISM (1800 - 1860)

THE HISTORICAL, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL FORCES A) Nationalism

The rise of the middle class; people became more ___________________________, _____________________________, and ________________________________________.

The size of the nation doubled in 1803 when Thomas Jefferson signed the ___________________________________.

Transportation helped bind the old and new states together with _____________________, _____________________, and _____________________________________.

The War of 1812 – war between America and _________________________; __________________________ won _______________________________was gained by winning the war which led to the

___________________________ when hundreds of thousands drew to this new land with promise.

B) The Industrial Revolution Caused tremendous economic growth Transformed American society __________________ were built, and __________________ and ___________________ were employed at lower wages, often in dangerous conditions Transportation became revolutionized when the _________________and _________________ were invented

C) Sectional Strife North and South began to start dividing because the North had____________ cities and a large

__________________________ economy, while the South had _____________ cities and an economy that revolved around the _______________ of a single crop – ______________

The Southerners used _______________ to work in the cotton fields, but the Northerners were against ________________________.

D) The Age of Reform The Age of Reform saw people come together to end _______________ , secure __________________ rights,

provide __________________________ laws, and improve __________________.

E) American Heritage A new American literature emerged during this period. It was a time for a literary declaration of

independence – for the emergence of the ________________________literature that no longer imitated __________________________ models but blazed its own trail. Europeans were now reading American stories, poems, and novels.

THE ROOTS OF ROMANTICISM

A.)The term “Romantic”1. Comes from Medieval genre of the _____________________

a. Definition:

2. Has NOTHING to do with soap operas or cheap novels

3. Romantic writers valued __________________ and ________________over intellect and reason

4. A way to escape _______________________________.

5. Three meanings To be fascinated with ____________ and ______________ to trust ______________ and self To question __________________and authority and imagine better = ___________ To welcome ______________________, adapt

B)Optimism and Individualism1. Some writers focused on celebrating individualism and freedom, believing in the basic goodness and equality of humans and their right to govern themselves; emphasis on _______________________, not ______ or _________________________________. 2. Some writers looked at the world through _____________________________________________.

C) Kinship with Nature1. Some writers believed in the importance of ____________ and celebrated its beauty, power and wonder2. They stressed the value of nature as a _______________ and _______________guide for humanity3. They feared the destructive effects of _________________, such as the increasing number of factories being built and new inventions like the railroad

D) The Power of Darkness1. Some writers took a more pessimistic view of life, focusing on a fascination with _____________, ___________________, ________________, ______________, the supernatural, and the destructive aspects of nature.2. Many were drawn to the nontraditional side to human nature, such as emotions, imagination and intuition, even evil and insanity, and they were fascinated with remote periods of history and exotic places.3. The writings of these writers became known as ____________________________ because their work emphasized the unknown and inspired fear through its depressing, gloomy atmosphere

E.) Characteristics of the Writing1. 2.3. 4.5. 6.7. 8.

NOTEBOOK CHECK 4: excerpt FROM NATURE

BY RALPH WALDO EMERSON1. Using a dictionary, what is an optimist?

2. Ralph Waldo Emerson was a lifelong optimist who celebrated the individual. He believed that the

human mind is so powerful it can unlock any mystery, from the intricacies of nature to the wonder of

God. He believed that people could accomplish great things by being true to their innermost selves.

3. Define Transcendentalism. (Use the Literary Handbook in the back of the text – pg R19)

4. Emerson was a leader of Transcendentalism. He was convinced that the universe existed for the

benefit of humanity and that there is nothing that we cannot achieve if we believe in ourselves. He

believed that ordinary man could go beyond the ordinary, the outdated, and the unoriginal.

5. Using a dictionary, what is Idealism?

GENRE: NONFICTION An essay

LITERARY ELEMENT The theme

BOX UNFAMILIAR TERMS. DEFINE THEM WITH SYNONYMS OF THE SAME PART OF SPEECH. HIGHLIGHT WORDS WITH STRONG CONNOTATION, HIGHLIGHT THE ANSWERS TO EACH OF THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS IN THE TEXT. LABEL THEM WITH THE NUMBERS. INCLUDE ADDITIONAL INSIGHTS BELOW.1 To go into solitude, a man needs to retire as much from his chamber as

from society. I am not solitary whilst I read and write, though nobody is with me. But if a man would be alone, let him look at the stars. The rays that come from those heavenly worlds, will separate between him and what he touches. One might think the atmosphere was made transparent with this design, to give man, in the heavenly bodies, the perpetual presence of the sublime. Seen in the streets of cities, how great they are! If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore; and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God which had been shown! But every night come out these envoys of beauty, and light the universe with their admonishing smile.

2 The stars awaken a certain reverence, because though always present, they are inaccessible; but all natural objects make a kindred impression, when the mind is open to their influence. Nature never wears a mean

Highlight the central idea of this paragraph.

Highlight words with strong connotation and use the tone reference sheet to indicate the tone of these first and second paragraphs.

What is suggested about

appearance. Neither does the wisest man extort her secret, and lose his curiosity by finding out all her perfection. Nature never became a toy to a wise spirit. The flowers, the animals, the mountains, reflected the wisdom of his best hour, as much as they had delighted the simplicity of his childhood. When we speak of nature in this manner, we have a distinct but most poetical sense in the mind. We mean the integrity of impression made by manifold natural objects. It is this which distinguishes the stick of timber of the wood-cutter, from the tree of the poet. The charming landscape which I saw this morning, is indubitably made up of some twenty or thirty farms. Miller owns this field, Locke that, and Manning the woodland beyond. But none of them owns the landscape. There is a property in the horizon which no man has but he whose eye can integrate all the parts, that is, the poet. This is the best part of these men's farms, yet to this their warranty-deeds give no title. To speak truly, few adult persons can see nature. Most persons do not see the sun. At least they have a very superficial seeing. The sun illuminates only the eye of the man, but shines into the eye and the heart of the child. The lover of nature is he whose inward and outward senses are still truly adjusted to each other; who has retained the spirit of infancy even into the era of manhood. His intercourse with heaven and earth, becomes part of his daily food. In the presence of nature, a wild delight runs through the man, in spite of real sorrows. Nature says, — he is my creature, and maugre all his impertinent griefs, he shall be glad with me. Not the sun or the summer alone, but every hour and season yields its tribute of delight; for every hour and change corresponds to and authorizes a different state of the mind, from breathless noon to grimmest midnight. Nature is a setting that fits equally well a comic or a mourning piece. In good health, the air is a cordial of incredible virtue. Crossing a bare common, in snow puddles, at twilight, under a clouded sky, without having in my thoughts any occurrence of special good fortune, I have enjoyed a perfect exhilaration. I am glad to the brink of fear. In the woods too, a man casts off his years, as the snake his slough, and at what period soever of life, is always a child. In the woods, is perpetual youth. Within these plantations of God, a decorum and sanctity reign, a perennial festival is dressed, and the guest sees not how he should tire of them in a thousand years. In the woods, we return to reason and faith. There I feel that nothing can befall me in life, — no disgrace, no calamity, (leaving me my eyes,) which nature cannot repair. Standing on the bare ground, — my head bathed by the blithe air, and uplifted into infinite space, — all mean egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eye-ball; I am nothing; I see all; the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part or particle of God. The name of the nearest friend sounds then foreign and accidental: to be brothers, to be acquaintances, — master or servant, is then a trifle and a disturbance. I am the lover of uncontained and immortal beauty. In the wilderness, I find something

Emerson’s purpose when he says, “To speak truly, few adult persons can see nature”?

According to Emerson, is our experience with nature the same every time we go to the woods?

Under what circumstances, according to Emerson, does “mean egotism” vanish? How would you define Emerson’s idea of

more dear and connate than in streets or villages. In the tranquil landscape, and especially in the distant line of the horizon, man beholds somewhat as beautiful as his own nature.

3 The greatest delight which the fields and woods minister, is the suggestion of an occult relation between man and the vegetable. I am not alone and unacknowledged. They nod to me, and I to them. The waving of the boughs in the storm, is new to me and old. It takes me by surprise, and yet is not unknown. Its effect is like that of a higher thought or a better emotion coming over me, when I deemed I was thinking justly or doing right.

4 Yet it is certain that the power to produce this delight, does not reside in nature, but in man, or in a harmony of both. It is necessary to use these pleasures with great temperance. For, nature is not always tricked in holiday attire, but the same scene which yesterday breathed perfume and glittered as for the frolic of the nymphs, is overspread with melancholy today. Nature always wears the colors of the spirit. To a man laboring under calamity, the heat of his own fire hath sadness in it. Then, there is a kind of contempt of the landscape felt by him who has just lost by death a dear friend. The sky is less grand as it shuts down over less worth in the population.

“mean egotism”?

What do you learn about the theme of the essay in the statement “In the woods, we return to reason and faith”?

Why do you think Emerson believes that “nature always wears the colors of the spirit”?

In this essay, how does Emerson personify nature?

How does Emerson show his idealism in this essay? How does idealism affect the theme of Nature?

How is the theme of Nature consistent with transcendentalism?

NOTEBOOK CHECK 5: excerpt FROM SELF-RELIANCEBY RALPH WALDO EMERSON

GENRE: NONFICTION essay

LITERARY ELEMENT figurative language

BOX UNFAMILIAR TERMS. DEFINE THEM WITH SYNONYMS OF THE SAME PART OF SPEECH. HIGHLIGHT WORDS WITH STRONG CONNOTATION, HIGHLIGHT THE ANSWERS TO EACH OF THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS IN THE TEXT. LABEL THEM WITH THE NUMBERS. INCLUDE ADDITIONAL INSIGHTS BELOW.1 I read the other day some verses written by an eminent painter which were

original and not conventional. The soul always hears an admonition in such lines, let the subject be what it may. The sentiment they instil is of more value than any thought they may contain. To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men, — that is genius. Speak your latent conviction, and it shall be the universal sense; for the inmost in due time becomes the outmost,—— and our first thought is rendered back to us by the trumpets of the Last Judgment. Familiar as the voice of the mind is to each, the highest merit we ascribe to Moses, Plato, and Milton is, that they set at naught books and traditions, and spoke not what men but what they thought. A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light which flashes across his mind from within, more than the lustre of the firmament of bards and sages. Yet he dismisses without notice his thought, because it is his. In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts: they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty. Great works of art have no more affecting lesson for us than this. They teach us to abide by our spontaneous impression with good-humored inflexibility then most when the whole cry of voices is on the other side. Else, to-morrow a stranger will say with masterly good sense precisely what we have thought and felt all the time, and we shall be forced to take with shame our own opinion from another.

2 There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till. The power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried. Not for nothing one face, one character, one fact, makes much impression on him, and another none. This sculpture in the memory is not without preestablished harmony. The eye was placed where one ray should fall, that it might testify of that particular ray. We but half express ourselves, and are ashamed of that divine idea which each of us represents. It may be safely trusted as proportionate and of good issues, so it be faithfully imparted, but God will not have his work made manifest by cowards. A man is relieved and gay when he has put his heart into his work and done his best; but what he has said or done otherwise, shall give him no peace. It is a deliverance which does not deliver. In the attempt his genius deserts him; no muse befriends; no invention, no hope.

3 Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string. Accept the place the divine providence has found for you, the society of your contemporaries, the connection

According to Emerson, what is genius? How does his definition of genius relate to his belief in individualism?

What does Emerson mean in the underlined passage?

What does Emerson meanin the underlined passage in par 2? How does this relate to his belief in individualism?

What comparison does Emerson make in the underlined passage that begins, “…no kernel of nourishing ..”?

When Emerson says, “We but half express ourselves…”what is he

of events. Great men have always done so, and confided themselves childlike to the genius of their age, betraying their perception that the absolutely trustworthy was seated at their heart, working through their hands, predominating in all their being. And we are now men, and must accept in the highest mind the same transcendent destiny; and not minors and invalids in a protected corner, not cowards fleeing before a revolution, but guides, redeemers, and benefactors, obeying the Almighty effort, and advancing on Chaos and the Dark…

4 Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members. Society is a joint-stock company, in which the members agree, for the better securing of his bread to each shareholder, to surrender the liberty and culture of the eater. The virtue in most request is conformity. Self-reliance is its aversion. It loves not realities and creators, but names and customs.

5 Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist. He who would gather immortal palms must not be hindered by the name of goodness, but must explore if it be goodness. Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind…

6What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think. This rule, equally arduous in actual and in intellectual life, may serve for the whole distinction between greatness and meanness. It is the harder, because you will always find those who think they know what is your duty better than you know it. It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.

saying is the cause of our shame?

Emerson says that “A man is relieved and gay when he has put his heart into his work and done his best.” According to Emerson, in what way should a person approach his or her work? What kind of “work” do you think he is describing?

Emerson states that “…you will always find those who think they know what is your duty better than you know it.” What does this reveal about his way of thinking on relationships between individuals?To what does Emerson compare society? How does society affect what people value?

Emerson uses many religious references throughout the essay. Highlight and make note of all religious references. Why do you think he does so?

Identify the following examples of figurative language from the essay and explain each. “Society is a joint-stock company in which the members agree for the better securing of his bread

to each shareholder, to surrender the liberty and culture of the eater.”

“Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.”

“Always the soul hears an admonition in such lines...”

“A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light which flashes across his mind from

within…”

“…that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse,

as his portion.”

DRAWING CONCLUSIONS Draw a conclusion about what Emerson believed based on the three statements provided.

STATEMENTS ABOUT SOCIETY“Society is a joint-stock company in which the members agree for the better securing of his bread … to surrender the liberty and culture of the eater.” (p.184)

“Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist.” (p.184)

“…the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.” (p.184)

Conclusion:

STATEMENTS ABOUT THE DIVINE“…God will not have his work made manifest by cowards.” (p.184)

“Accept the place the divine Providence has found for you.” (p.184)

We should aspire “to be noble clay plastic under the Almighty effort…”(p.184)

Conclusion:

STATEMENTS ABOUT HUMAN NATURE“…envy is ignorance; … imitation is suicide…” (p.184)

“The eye was placed where one ray should fall, that it might testify of that particular ray.” (p.184)

“Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.” (p.184)

Conclusion:

NOTEBOOK CHECK 6: Henry David Thoreau

Read the biography of Henry David Thoreau on page 202 and answer the following questions.

(1) Which author was Thoreau influenced by? What kind of influence do you think this person had on Thoreau?

(2) Explain Thoreau’s experiment at Walden Pond.

excerpt FROM WALDENBY HENRY DAVID THOREAU

GENRE: NONFICTION essay

LITERARY ELEMENT figurative language

BOX UNFAMILIAR TERMS. DEFINE THEM WITH SYNONYMS OF THE SAME PART OF SPEECH. HIGHLIGHT WORDS WITH STRONG CONNOTATION, HIGHLIGHT THE ANSWERS TO EACH OF THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS IN THE TEXT. LABEL THEM WITH THE NUMBERS. INCLUDE ADDITIONAL INSIGHTS BELOW.From Where I lived and What I Lived For1 I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential

facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan- like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, 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 its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion. For most men, it appears to me, are in a strange uncertainty about it, whether it is of the devil or of God, and have somewhat hastily concluded that it is the chief end of man here to "glorify God and enjoy him forever."

2 Still we live meanly, like ants; though the fable tells us that we were long ago changed into men; like pygmies we fight with cranes; it is error upon error, and clout upon clout, and our best virtue has for its occasion a superfluous and evitable wretchedness. Our life is frittered away by detail. 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. Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumb-nail. In the midst of this chopping sea of civilized life, such are the clouds and storms and quicksands and thousand-and-one items to be allowed for, that a man has to live, if he would not founder and go to the bottom and not make his port at all, by dead reckoning, and he must be a great calculator indeed who succeeds. Simplify, simplify. Instead of three meals a day, if it be necessary eat but one; instead of a hundred dishes, five; and reduce other things in proportion. Our life is like a German Confederacy, made up of petty states, with its boundary forever fluctuating, so that even a German cannot tell you how it is bounded at any moment. The nation itself, with all its so- called internal improvements, which, by the way are all external and superficial, is just such an unwieldy and overgrown

What did Thoreau hope to do at Walden? How could being at Walden help him achieve hisgoal?

What is being compared in the underlined metaphor? Why do you think Thoreau chose this image?

In what ways might people today “live what [is] not life”?


establishment, cluttered with furniture and tripped up by its own traps, ruined by luxury and heedless expense, by want of calculation and a worthy aim, as the million households in the land; and the only cure for it, as for them, is in a rigid economy, a stern and more than Spartan simplicity of life and elevation of purpose. It lives too fast. Men think that it is essential that the Nation have commerce, and export ice, and talk through a telegraph, and ride thirty miles an hour, without a doubt, whether they do or not; but whether we should live like baboons or like men, is a little uncertain. If we do not get out sleepers, and forge rails, and devote days and nights to the work, but go to tinkering upon our lives to improve them, who will build railroads? And if railroads are not built, how shall we get to heaven in season? But if we stay at home and mind our business, who will want railroads? We do not ride on the railroad; it rides upon us. Did you ever think what those sleepers are that underlie the railroad? Each one is a man, an Irishman, or a Yankee man. The rails are laid on them, and they are covered with sand, and the cars run smoothly over them. They are sound sleepers, I assure you. And every few years a new lot is laid down and run over; so that, if some have the pleasure of riding on a rail, others have the misfortune to be ridden upon. And when they run over a man that is walking in his sleep, a supernumerary sleeper in the wrong position, and wake him up, they suddenly stop the cars, and make a hue and cry about it, as if this were an exception. I am glad to know that it takes a gang of men for every five miles to keep the sleepers down and level in their beds as it is, for this is a sign that they may sometime get up again.

3 Why should we live with such hurry and waste of life? We are determined to be starved before we are hungry. Men say that a stitchin time saves nine, and so they take a thousand stitches today to save nine tomorrow. As for work, we haven't any of any consequence. We have the Saint Vitus' dance, and cannot possibly keep our heads still. If I should only give a few pulls at the parish bell-rope, as for a fire, that is, without setting the bell, there is hardly a man on his farm in the outskirts of Concord, notwithstanding that press of engagements which was his excuse so many times this morning, nor a boy, nor a woman, I might almost say, but would forsake all and follow that sound, not mainly to save property from the flames, but, if we will confess the truth, much more to see it burn, since burn it must, and we, be it known, did not set it on fire- or to see it put out, and have a hand in it, if that is done as handsomely; yes, even if it were the parish church itself. Hardly a man takes a half-hour's nap after dinner, but when he wakes he holds up his head and asks, "What's the news?" as if the rest of mankind had stood his sentinels. Some give directions to be waked every half-hour, doubtless for no other purpose; and then, to pay for it, they tell what they have dreamed. After a night's sleep the news is as indispensable as the breakfast. "Pray tell me anything new that has happened to a man anywhere on this globe"- and he reads it over his coffee and rolls, that a man has had his eyes gouged out this morning on the Wachito River; never dreaming the while that he lives in the dark unfathomed mammoth cave of this world, and has but the rudiment of an eye himself.

4 For my part, I could easily do without the post-office. I think that there are very few important communications made through it. To speak critically, I never received more than one or two letters in my life- I wrote this some years ago- that were worth the postage. The penny-post is, commonly, an institution through which you seriously offer a man that penny for his thoughts which is so often safely offered in jest. And I am sure that I never read any memorable news in a newspaper. If we read of one man robbed, or murdered, or killed by accident, or one house burned, or one vessel wrecked, or one steamboat blown up, or one cow run over on the Western Railroad, or one mad dog killed, or one lot of grasshoppers in the winter- we never need read of another. One is enough. If you are acquainted with the principle, what do you care for a myriad instances and applications? …

What words are repeated? Highlight them in the text.

Highlight the central idea of this paragraph

Thoreau says that “We have the Saint Vitus’ dance, and cannot possibly keep our heads still.” In what ways might you say people today have the “Saint Vitus’ dance”?

Explain the underlined metaphor.

Do you think hisarguments against mail and news are relevant today?

5 Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in. I drink at it; but while I drink I see the sandy bottom and detect how shallow it is. Its thin current slides away, but eternity remains. I would drink deeper; fish in the sky, whose bottom is pebbly with stars. I cannot count one. I know not the first letter of the alphabet. I have always been regretting that I was not as wise as the day I was born. The intellect is a cleaver; it discerns and rifts its way into the secret of things. I do not wish to be any more busy with my hands than is necessary. My head is hands and feet. I feel all my best faculties concentrated in it. My instinct tells me that my head is an organ for burrowing, as some creatures use their snout and fore paws, and with it I would mine and burrow my way through these hills. I think that the richest vein is somewhere hereabouts; so by the divining-rod and thin rising vapors I judge; and here I will begin to mine.


Do you think it’s possible to live Thoreau’s simple lifestyle in today’s world?

From Brute Neighbors1 It is remarkable how many creatures live wild and free though secret in the woods,

and still sustain themselves in the neighborhood of towns, suspected by hunters only. How retired the otter manages to live here! He grows to be four feet long, as big as a small boy, perhaps without any human being getting a glimpse of him. I formerly saw the raccoon in the woods behind where my house is built, and probably still heard their whinnering at night. Commonly I rested an hour or two in the shade at noon, after planting, and ate my lunch, and read a little by a spring which was the source of a swamp and of a brook, oozing from under Brister's Hill, half a mile from my field. The approach to this was through a succession of descending grassy hollows, full of young pitch pines, into a larger wood about the swamp. There, in a very secluded and shaded spot, under a spreading white pine, there was yet a clean, firm sward to sit on. I had dug out the spring and made a well of clear gray water, where I could dip up a pailful without roiling it, and thither I went for this purpose almost every day in midsummer, when the pond was warmest. Thither, too, the woodcock led her brood, to probe the mud for worms, flying but a foot above them down the bank, while they ran in a troop beneath; but at last, spying me, she would leave her young and circle round and round me, nearer and nearer till within four or five feet, pretending broken wings and legs, to attract my attention, and get off her young, who would already have taken up their march, with faint, wiry peep, single file through the swamp, as she directed. Or I heard the peep of the young when I could not see the parent bird. There too the turtle doves sat over the spring, or fluttered from bough to bough of the soft white pines over my head; or the red squirrel, coursing down the nearest bough, was particularly familiar and inquisitive. You only need sit still long enough in some attractive spot in the woods that all its inhabitants may exhibit themselves to you by turns.

2 I was witness to events of a less peaceful character. One day when I went out to my wood-pile, or rather my pile of stumps, I observed two large ants, the one red, the other much larger, nearly half an inch long, and black, fiercely contending with one another. Having once got hold they never let go, but struggled and wrestled and rolled on the chips incessantly. Looking farther, I was surprised to find that the chips were covered with such combatants, that it was not a duellum, but a bellum,(1) a war between two races of ants, the red always pitted against the black, and frequently two red ones to one black.The legions of these Myrmidons (2) covered all the hills and vales in my wood-yard, and the ground was already strewn with the dead and dying, both red and black. It was the only battle which I have ever witnessed, the only battle-field I ever trod while the battle was raging; internecine war; the red

Why does he make the underlined comment about the relationship between people and nature?

How would you compare the underlined comment with his comments in the chapter “Where I Lived and What I Lived For”?

Summarize the battle between the ants that Thoreau describes. Why do you think he becomes so fascinated with this battle?

republicans on the one hand, and the black imperialists on the other. On every side they were engaged in deadly combat, yet without any noise that I could hear, and human soldiers never fought so resolutely. I watched a couple that were fast locked in each other's embraces, in a little sunny valley amid the chips, now at noonday prepared to fight till the sun went down, or life went out. The smaller red champion had fastened himself like a vice to his adversary's front, and through all the tumblings on that field never for an instant ceased to gnaw at one of his feelers near the root, having already caused the other to go by the board; while the stronger black one dashed him from side to side, and, as I saw on looking nearer, had already divested him of several of his members. They fought with more pertinacity than bulldogs. Neither manifested the least disposition to retreat. It was evident that their battle-cry was "Conquer or die."(3) In the meanwhile there came along a single red ant on the hillside of this valley, evidently full of excitement, who either had despatched his foe, or had not yet taken part in the battle; probably the latter, for he had lost none of his limbs; whose mother had charged him to return with his shield or upon it. Or perchance he was some Achilles, who had nourished his wrath apart, and had now come to avenge or rescue his Patroclus. He saw this unequal combat from afar — for the blacks were nearly twice the size of the red — he drew near with rapid pace till be stood on his guard within half an inch of the combatants; then, watching his opportunity, he sprang upon the black warrior, and commenced his operations near the root of his right fore leg, leaving the foe to select among his own members; and so there were three united for life, as if a new kind of attraction had been invented which put all other locks and cements to shame. I should not have wondered by this time to find that they had their respective musical bands stationed on some eminent chip, and playing their national airs the while, to excite the slow and cheer the dying combatants. I was myself excited somewhat even as if they had been men. The more you think of it, the less the difference. And certainly there is not the fight recorded in Concord history, at least, if in the history of America, that will bear a moment's comparison with this, whether for the numbers engaged in it, or for the patriotism and heroism displayed. For numbers and for carnage it was an Austerlitz or Dresden.(4) Concord Fight! Two killed on the patriots' side, and Luther Blanchard wounded!(5) Why here every ant was a Buttrick (6) — "Fire! for God's sake fire!" — and thousands shared the fate of Davis and Hosmer.(7) There was not one hireling there. I have no doubt that it was a principle they fought for, as much as our ancestors, and not to avoid a three-penny tax on their tea; and the results of this battle will be as important and memorable to those whom it concerns as those of the battle of Bunker Hill, at least.

3 I took up the chip on which the three I have particularly described were struggling, carried it into my house, and placed it under a tumbler on my window-sill, in order to see the issue. Holding a microscope to the first-mentioned red ant, I saw that, though he was assiduously gnawing at the near fore leg of his enemy, having severed his remaining feeler, his own breast was all torn away, exposing what vitals he had there to the jaws of the black warrior, whose breastplate was apparently too thick for him to pierce; and the dark carbuncles of the sufferer's eyes shone with ferocity such as war only could excite. They struggled half an hour longer under the tumbler, and when I looked again the black soldier had severed the heads of his foes from their bodies, and the still living heads were hanging on either side of him like ghastly trophies at his saddle-bow, still apparently as firmly fastened as ever, and he was endeavoring with feeble struggles, being without feelers and with only the remnant of a leg, and I know not how many other wounds, to divest himself of them; which at length, after half an hour more, he accomplished. I raised the glass, and he went off over the window-sill in that crippled state. Whether he finally survived that combat, and spent the remainder of his days in some Hotel des Invalides,(8) I do not know; but I thought that his industry would not be worth much thereafter. I never learned which party was victorious, nor the cause of the war; but I felt for the rest of that day

Highlight words with strong connotation and use the tone reference sheet to indicate the tone of these paragraphs.

How does Thoreau characterize the animals he observes?

How effective is the underlined extended metaphor? What is it comparing?

Highlight the central idea of this paragraph

1 not a duel, but a war2 in Greek legend, troops who

fought with Achilles in the Trojan War

3 "We have therefore to resolve to conquer or die." - George Washington

4 battles of Napoleon5 American fifer at the battle of

Concord, died from a battle injury

6 John Buttrick, American commander at Concord

7 two Americans killed at Concord

as if I had had my feelings excited and harrowed by witnessing the struggle, the ferocity and carnage, of a human battle before my door.

Paris8 old soldiers' home built for Louis XIV

from Conclusion1 …I left the woods for as good a reason as I went there. Perhaps it seemed to me that I

had several more lives to live, and could not spare any more time for that one. It is remarkable how easily and insensibly we fall into a particular route, and make a beaten track for ourselves. I had not lived there a week before my feet wore a path from my door to the pond-side; and though it is five or six years since I trod it, it is still quite distinct. It is true, I fear, that others may have fallen into it, and so helped to keep it open. The surface of the earth is soft and impressible by the feet of men; and so with the paths which the mind travels. How worn and dusty, then, must be the highways of the world, how deep the ruts of tradition and conformity! I did not wish to take a cabin passage, but rather to go before the mast and on the deck of the world, for there I could best see the moonlight amid the mountains. I do not wish to go below now.

2 I learned this, at least, by my experiment: that if one advances confidently 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. He will put some things behind, will pass an invisible boundary; new, universal, and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves around and within him; or the old laws be expanded, and interpreted in his favor in a more liberal sense, and he will live with the license of a higher order of beings. In proportion as he simplifies his life, the laws of the universe will appear less complex, and solitude will not be solitude, nor poverty poverty, nor weakness weakness. If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.

What does Thoreau say will happen if “one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined”?

How might you apply Thoreau’s last bit of advice to your own life?

Thoreau says multiple times that people need to simplify their lives. Why does he think this? Is he a credible speaker on the topic? Explain.

What is Thoreau’s central message in Walden?

Although Thoreau lived in the 1800s, his message remains relevant today. What are some of the things that surround us about which Thoreau might cry, “Simplify, simplify”?

All human beings are a part of the natural world. Therefore, all human beings have had experiences in nature. Watching raindrops zigzag down a windowpane, awakening to a bird song at sunrise, catching a surprising glimpse of a rainbow – all of these are “natural” experiences. Look through the selection from Walden for thoughts, ideas, or experiences that are similar to those of your own. Highlight them and make note of the similarities.

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