The 5 W's
Vocabulary
Figurative Language
Study and Discussion
100
Thoreau moved on this date
The fourth of July, 1845?
100
To change continually or vary irregularly
What is fluctuating?
100
"Still we live meanly, like ants"
What is a simile?
100
What is Thoreau's solution to the clutter of everyday life?
He believes people would be better of simplifying their lives.
200
Where Thoreau moved to
Walden pond in Concord , Massachusetts?
200
Of, relating to, or located near the surface
What is superficial?
200
"To my imagination it retained throughout the day more or less of this auroral character" The word auroral is a classical ____.
What is an allusion?
200
In the first sentence, he tells the reader that his unfinished house allowed the air to blow through.How does this simple fact become important in the discussion of "winds " in the last part of the paragraph?
In the last part of the paragraph, the unfinished state of Thoreau's house allows for a close relationship with nature and the universe.
300
The main inspiration for Thoreau
Ralph Waldo Emerson
300
Unnecessary, especially through being more than enough
What is superfluous?
300
"Our life is like a German Confederacy, made up of petty states, with its boundary forever fluctuating...."
What is a simile?
300
In what way did living in the woods enable Thoreau to improve the quality of his life?
By going to live in the woods, Thoreau cast off the artifices of civilization and simplified his life.
400
What did he do when he arrived at Walden Pond?
Built a cabin
400
Impressing the mind with a sense of grandeur or power; inspiring awe, veneration, etc.
What is sublime?
400
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."
What is a metaphor?
400
Why does he place so much emphasis on simplicity?
Thoreau's repeated call for simplicity is a call for a return to the essentials of life: we must throw off the meanness induced by fretting over inessential details.
500
The reason he moved to Walden Pond
To seek freedom and/or live his life to the fullest
500
To discharge slowly and steadily
What is exude?
500
"....pygmies we fight with cranes...."
What is an allusion?
500
What paradox is expressed in the final sentence "We do not ride on the railroad; it rides upon us."
In creating the railroad, which symbolizes industrialization and modern technology, people have burdened themselves with the myriad details of building and maintaining this machinery.
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