1. You are the book reviewer for a major urban newspaper in 1836. You are assigned to write a review of a book titled Nature, by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Striving for objectivity, write a balanced review that expresses both the strengths and weaknesses of the book. (Alternatively, you are the […]
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1. Compare and contrast the views on nature expressed in Emerson’s Nature and in Thoreau’s “Walking.” 2. Examine the attitudes toward reform expressed in Emerson’s “Divinity School Address” and “Experience” and in Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience. 3. Discuss the significance of perception and perspective as developed in the writings of Emerson […]
Read more Study Help Essay QuestionsThoreau’s “Walking” Major Themes
The Pursuit and Comprehension of the Wild Thoreau prepared the essay “Walking” for publication during his final months. It forms part of a cluster of natural history writings that he worked on late in his life. (Among the others, “Autumnal Tints” and “Wild Apples” were, like “Walking,” published in Atlantic […]
Read more Thoreau’s “Walking” Major ThemesThoreau’s “Walking” Summary and Analysis
Thoreau’s essay “Walking” grew out of journal entries developed in 1851 into two lectures, “Walking” and “The Wild,” which were delivered in 1851 and 1852, and again in 1856 and 1857. Thoreau combined the lectures, separated them in 1854, and worked them together again for publication in 1862, as he […]
Read more Thoreau’s “Walking” Summary and AnalysisThoreau’s “Walden” Major Themes
The Spiritual Journey Walden is, above all, the account of Thoreau’s own exploration of his capabilities and his search for spiritual understanding. Thoreau recounts his personal quest to demonstrate to his readers the possibility of surmounting the obstacles that materialistic society places in the path of the individual. He does […]
Read more Thoreau’s “Walden” Major ThemesThoreau’s “Walden” Summary and Analysis
While Thoreau lived at Walden (July 4, 1845–September 6, 1847), he wrote journal entries and prepared lyceum lectures on his experiment in living at the pond. By 1847, he had begun to set his first draft of Walden down on paper. After leaving Walden, he expanded and reworked his material […]
Read more Thoreau’s “Walden” Summary and AnalysisThoreau’s “Civil Disobedience” Major Themes
Civil Government and Higher Law In Civil Disobedience, Thoreau’s basic premise is that a higher law than civil law demands the obedience of the individual. Human law and government are subordinate. In cases where the two are at odds with one another, the individual must follow his conscience and, if […]
Read more Thoreau’s “Civil Disobedience” Major ThemesThoreau’s “Civil Disobedience” Summary and Analysis
Having spent one night in jail in July of 1846 for refusal to pay his poll tax in protest against slavery and the Mexican War, Thoreau lectured before the Concord Lyceum in January of 1848 on the subject “On the Relation of the Individual to the State.” The lecture was […]
Read more Thoreau’s “Civil Disobedience” Summary and AnalysisThoreau’s “A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers” Major Themes
The Journey Inward A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers is the record of Thoreau’s journey inward toward an understanding of the universal and absolute. The actual journey described in the book provides a framework for Thoreau’s many approaches to higher truth. The theme of inward journey is suggested […]
Read more Thoreau’s “A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers” Major ThemesThoreau’s “A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers” Summary and Analysis
In 1840, Thoreau was recording journal entries about his 1839 trip with his brother John up the Concord and Merrimack Rivers. He started to think seriously of a book based on the trip after John’s death in 1842. As he copied over journal entries relating to the trip, A Week […]
Read more Thoreau’s “A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers” Summary and Analysis