Civil Disobedience
Thoreau believed in __________________________________ resistance.
non-violent
I went to the woods because wished to live ______________________________.
deliberately
How long did Henry David Thoreau live on Walden Pond?
2 years
How does Thoreau respond to people’s interest in the news?
He mocks the news and the people who obsess over it, implying that they are blind to life and reality because of their news obsession.
He believed it was every citizen’s _______________________ to oppose unjust laws.
Duty
Our lives are frittered away by _______________________________
detail
What business does he say he could do without?
newspapers
“We do not ride on the railroad; it rides upon us.” How is figurative language used in this quote?
Thoreau comments on how aspects of modern life, such as the train, control the lives of the people who use them, rather than the other way around.
The author of Civil Disobedience would not pay taxes because he would not support _________________________________ and ____________________________________
Mexican War and slavery
No exertion of the legs can bring two _________________ much nearer to one another
minds
What do 'time' and a 'stream' have in common
It continues on like the current of a stream with no regard for us
What does the word “mean” conveys, as used in “However mean your life is, meet it and live it”?
lowly, poor
What is one of the two main claims of Civil Disobedience?
Individuals have a responsibility to disobey laws that are inherently unjust and in conflict with their morals.
Citizens must challenge and attempt to change the wrongs of the state; it is not enough to work within the system.
Things don’t change, _____________ change
we
Thoreau believes his wisest day:
the day he was born
“My instinct tells me that my mind is an organ for burrowing. “ What is he digging for?
knowledge, insight
Describes Thoreau’s views on petitioning the government to effect change? (political passivity)
“Men generally, under such a government as this, think that they ought to wait until they have persuaded the majority to alter them.”
Money is not required to buy one thing necessary of the ______________
soul
What is the central idea of Walden
Life should be lived without complication or hurry in order to find meaning.
Explain: “It is remarkable how easily and insensibly we fall into a particular route…The surface of the earth is soft and impressible by the feet of men, and so with the paths the mind travels.”
he is cautioning us against conformity and following the same path that others have already created