Chapter II: Where I Lived, and What I Lived For Practice Quiz — Walden Pond
by Henry David Thoreau — tap or click to flip
Practice Quiz: Chapter II: Where I Lived, and What I Lived For
What farm did Thoreau nearly purchase before moving to Walden Pond?
The Hollowell farm, about two miles from the village, which he admired for its retirement, river boundary, and dilapidated charm.
Why did Thoreau not end up buying the Hollowell farm?
The owner's wife changed her mind and decided she wanted to keep the farm. The owner offered Thoreau ten dollars to release him from the deal.
On what date did Thoreau move into his cabin at Walden Pond?
Independence Day, July 4, 1845.
What was the condition of Thoreau's cabin when he first moved in?
It was unfinished — without plastering or a chimney, with rough weather-stained boards and wide chinks that made it cool at night. It served merely as a defense against rain.
Where was Thoreau's cabin located in relation to Concord?
About a mile and a half south of the village of Concord, on the shore of Walden Pond, in an extensive wood between Concord and Lincoln.
What was Thoreau's morning ritual at Walden Pond?
He got up early and bathed in the pond, which he called a religious exercise and one of the best things he did.
What birds did Thoreau encounter near his cabin that villagers rarely heard?
The wood thrush, the veery, the scarlet tanager, the field sparrow, the whip-poor-will, and many others.
How does Thoreau describe his relationship with the farmers whose land he imagined buying?
He walked their premises, tasted their wild apples, discussed husbandry with them, and mentally purchased their farms — earning a reputation as a sort of real-estate broker among his friends.
Who is Old Cato, and why does Thoreau reference him?
Old Cato is the ancient Roman author of "De Re Rustica," a treatise on farming. Thoreau quotes his advice about inspecting a farm repeatedly before buying, then jokes he will go round and round his land until he is buried in it.
What role does Thoreau cast himself in when he describes moving to Walden?
He casts himself as a philosopher-experimenter who wishes to live deliberately and front only the essential facts of life, comparing himself to a rooster (chanticleer) crowing to wake his neighbors.
Who is Khoung-tseu (Confucius) in the anecdote Thoreau tells?
Khoung-tseu is Confucius. A dignitary sends a messenger to learn his news, and the messenger reports his master is trying to diminish his faults. Confucius praises the messenger, illustrating that true news is moral self-improvement.
What does Thoreau mean by "Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity"?
He urges readers to strip life down to its essentials — reducing affairs to two or three instead of hundreds, eating simply, and rejecting the complexity of civilized life that he believes fritiers away existence.
What is the relationship between awakening and morality in this chapter?
Thoreau equates spiritual and moral awareness with being truly awake. He argues that most people sleepwalk through life, and that moral reform is essentially the effort to throw off sleep.
How does Thoreau contrast appearance and reality in this chapter?
He argues that "shams and delusions are esteemed for soundest truths, while reality is fabulous." He believes people live on illusory foundations and that children who play life understand it better than adults who fail to live it worthily.
What does Thoreau's criticism of news and the post office reveal about his philosophy?
It reveals his belief that external information distracts from inner truth. He considers news to be gossip and argues that knowing one instance of robbery or disaster is enough — the principle matters more than endless repetition.
What is the double meaning of "sleepers" in Thoreau's railroad passage?
Sleepers refers both to the wooden ties that support railroad tracks and to the workers who are metaphorically asleep — unconscious laborers upon whom industrial progress literally rides.
How does Thoreau use allusion to classical mythology in this chapter?
He references Aurora (goddess of dawn), Memnon (child of Aurora whose statue sang at sunrise), Ulysses tied to the mast, and Olympus. These allusions elevate his daily experience to mythic significance.
What extended metaphor does Thoreau use in the chapter's final paragraph?
He compares time to a stream he goes fishing in, then extends it: he sees its shallow sandy bottom, wants to drink deeper, and wishes to fish in the sky whose bottom is pebbly with stars — moving from temporal to transcendent experience.
What is the rhetorical effect of Thoreau's repeated rhetorical questions?
Questions like "Why should we live with such hurry?" and "How could I have looked him in the face?" directly engage the reader as a dialogue partner, challenging them to examine their own assumptions about how life should be lived.
What does "auroral" mean in the context of this chapter?
Relating to or resembling the dawn. Thoreau uses it to describe both the morning character of his cabin and the sacred early hours of the day that most people have "profaned."
What does "point d'appui" mean as Thoreau uses it?
A French term meaning a firm point of support or foundation. Thoreau uses it to describe the solid ground of reality one reaches after digging through layers of opinion, prejudice, and delusion.
What is a "Nilometer" and why does Thoreau reference it?
A Nilometer was an ancient device for measuring the Nile River's flood level. Thoreau proposes instead a "Realometer" to measure how deep a flood of shams and appearances has gathered over reality.
Complete the quote: "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only..."
"...the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived."
What does Thoreau mean when he says "To be awake is to be alive"?
He means that true living requires full spiritual and intellectual consciousness, not just physical wakefulness. Most people are awake enough for labor but not for genuine thought or poetic experience.
Complete the quote: "Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in. I drink at it; but while I drink..."
"...I see the sandy bottom and detect how shallow it is. Its thin current slides away, but eternity remains."