From "Self-Reliance" by Ralph Waldo Emerson (text p. 276-77)

1. What does Emerson mean by "imitation is suicide"?

2. What is the meaning of the "kernel of nourishing corn" analogy? What is he saying about people's potential?

3. Are we equally impressed by all people and ideas? (See "Not for nothing…")

4. In the paragraph beginning, "Trust thyself," what does Emerson say we must accept? Put his thoughts into your OWN words!

5. In saying "trust thyself," what does Emerson essentially mean?

6. What is the "virtue in most request"? What does Emerson think of this? Why? Do you agree?

7. Emerson advises us that we must not be "hindered by the name of goodness, but must explore if it be goodness." How is this similar to Franklin's philosophy about why certain actions should be "forbidden" or not?

8. What does Emerson say is the only really sacred thing? What does he mean by this?

9. What does Emerson think of deliberate consistency?

How would deliberate consistency keep us from improving?

8. What point is Emerson illustrating when he alludes to Jesus, Luther, Copernicus, Galileo and Newton?

From "The American Scholar" by Ralph Waldo Emerson (reprint handout)

1. What does Emerson say the scholar is delegated as? What is he in "the right state"? What has the scholar tended to become?

2. What do we accomplish by studying nature?

3. What is the "next great influence" on the scholar?

4. What must "each age" do?

5. What, in your own words, is the "grave mischief" of which Emerson speaks?

6. What should books really be used for?

7. Read the passage beginning "It is remarkable . . . ." In your own words, what does Emerson say about "the best books"?

Which pieces of writing have you felt this way about in your life?

8. According to Emerson, what are the problems in the notion that the scholar must be a recluse?

9. Do you agree with Emerson that the scholar must not be a recluse? Explain why.

10. What does Emerson mean when he says that the scholar's duty is to be "free and brave"?

11. What does Emerson say fear springs from?

12. What comments does Emerson make about the things on which American scholars should concentrate?

What does he say about Europe?

From Walden: "Where I Lived and What I Lived For" (text p. 288-92)

Also read the bio. and background info. on p286-287.

1. What seems to be Thoreau's attitudes towards ownership of property and possessions?

Which line on p. 288 tells us this (quote it)?

2. Described what happened with Thoreau and the Hollowell Place.

What does he say on p. 289 was the "real attraction" of Hollowell Place was?

What does this tell us about Thoreau as a person?

3. When did Thoreau first begin living at Walden Pond? (p. 290)

4. Fill in the blanks in the following statement:

"I went to the woods because _________________________________________________________, to front only the _____________________________________________, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that _______________________________________ ."

What is your opinion on the value of Thoreau's Walden Pond experiment? Do you think it was a good way of accomplishing what Thoreau said in the above statement he set out to do? Why or why not?

5. What word might best describe the sort of life Thoreau thinks a person should live, judging by his advice on p. 291?

6. What might Thoreau have meant by, "We do not ride on the railroad; it rides upon us…"?

"On the Duty of Civil Disobedience"

by Henry David Thoreau (p. 222 OR page 265 in Walden and Civil Disobedience, Signet Classics)

NOTE: There are two different versions of the book, hence the second set of pages for each reference; check your copy to see where the essay begins, and use the appropriate page references fro your book.

1. What kind of government does Thoreau favor? Why?

2. What does Thoreau think of "majority rule"? Is he right?

3. What does Thoreau say should be used to decide right and wrong?

4. What does Thoreau say is his only obligation?

5. What happens when people have an "undue respect for the law"? (Put this in your own words.)

6. On the bottom of p. 224 (or 268, middle) and on p. 225 (or 269, top), what two reasons does Thoreau give for justifying revolt against the current government? ("In other words, when…")

7. According to Thoreau, why won't most people revolt against the government? (pp. 225-226 or 269-270)

8. What are some of the problems Thoreau sees with voting as a form of actually doing something to right a wrong? (pp. 226 & 229 or 270 and 274)

9. What should determine our actions? (p. 228, 2nd full ¶; or 272-273)

10. What part of society should the government listen to? What people does Thoreau use as examples to support this? (p. 229, top; or 273 middle)

11. If the law "requires you to be the agent of ______________________ to another, then, I say ____ the _____________ … What I have to do is to see, at any rate, that I do not ____________________ (p. 229 or 273-274).

12. On p. 231 (or 276), Thoreau describes how a minority may, through civil disobedience, influence the government. Explain how the minority can do this.

13. Why is Thoreau freer to commit civil disobedience than most of the people he knows? (p. 232 or 278, "When I converse…")

14. What two taxes does Thoreau say he has refused to pay? Why? What happened as a result? (bottom of p. 232 , p. 233-34' or 278-279)

15. What does Thoreau mean by the statement: "If a plant cannot live according to nature, it dies; and so a man"?

16. During his night in jail, how did Thoreau spend his time?

17. Thoreau quotes the argument Daniel Webster, lawmaker who says that slavery should remain legal since it was legal when the Constitution was first written.

Why is this not necessarily a valid argument?

What other things were once considered "constitutional" that are now not considered so?

How were changes in these laws effected? (There are two different ways in which things once okay under the Constitution can be made or deemed not so, or vice-versa.)