Transcendentalism Emerson and Thoreau

Why did Thoreau decide to build a cabin on Walden Pond?

• Thoreau's brother died, so he decided he did not like city life; he wanted a simple life of solitude.

• Thoreau wanted to see if he could live alone for two years.

• Thoreau loved to fish and swim in a pond.

• Thoreau built the cabin for his fiance to live in.

Why did Thoreau choose to live in the woods?

• to avoid other people

• to live meaningfully

• to get closer to nature

• to challenge himself to do so

Transcendentalism is...

• a love of people

• an ideal way of life

• a way to transcend the way we garden

• a religion of philosophy to love nature and trust emotions rather than reason

According to Thoreau, contentment is

• boring.

• desirable.

• common.

• impossible.

Thoreau's home on Walden Pond could best be described as a

• tent.

• cabin.

• mansion.

• houseboat.

Thoreau decided to leave Walden Pond because he

• had grown lonely.

• felt that it was time to do other things.

• didn't find what he had hoped to find there.

• knew that he would never truly feel at home there.

Which of the following quotations contains a simile?

• "I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear."

• "Instead of three meals a day, if it be necessary eat but one."

• "I took up my abode..on Independence day, or the fourth of July, 1845."

• "The very dew seemed to hang upon the trees later into the day than usual, as on the sides of mountains."

When Thoreau says, "I have found that no exertion of the legs can bring two minds much nearer to one another," he means that physical closeness

• is enough.

• is all that people can really hope for.

• doesn't guarantee intellectual or spiritual closeness.

• can feel the same as intellectual or spiritual closeness

Transcendentalism had many leaders, name three.

• Dial, Rolly, and Emily

• Waldo, Ralph, and Elizabeth

• Poe, Keets, and Espree

• Emerson, Thoreau, and Fuller

Transcendentalists believed that the way to discover spirituality is:

• to openly trust what people told you to believe.

• to look inwards and connect to nature to discover self.

• to always follow the rules of life.

• to read often, discover what others think, then decide your own thoughts.