Quiz on Walden

2. Why is it that Thoreau says he does not experience loneliness out in the woods?

"I experienced sometimes that the most sweet and tender, the most innocent and encouraging society may be found in any natural object." "I was suddenly sensible of such sweet and beneficent society in Nature, in the very pattering of the drops, and in every sound and sight around my house, an infinite and unaccountable friendliness all at once like an atmosphere sustaining me, as made the fancied advantages of human neighborhood insignificant, and I have never thought of them since." Thoreau is comforted with the companion he finds in nature. He also claims that when we have less human contact we appreciate the contact we do get much more.

3. How does Thoreau feel about the expansion of railroads?

Thoreau says that "we do not ride on the railroad, it rides upon us." "If we stay home and mind our business, who will want railoads?" I think he feel that the railroad is an intrusion on the landscape and a burden to to those who are content to travel under their own power.

4. One of the closing lines of Walden is, "Only that day dawns to which we are awake." What message does Thoreau want to send by closing this way To what does he want us to awaken?

Thoreau is trying to say that we can only live life one day at a time. We are in the moment and that is all we can control. If we don't live for the moment we are not truly living. Thourough wants us to awaken to our own consiousness and realize that we are here and now and that we should not waste life by taking it for granted or living for the future.