Journal 11

Journal 11 - Selections from Walden

Write a summary of the following selections and identify a direct quote that you feel best expresses its main idea.

“Where I Lived and What I Lived For” (232)

You think that technology results in connection, when it actually results in disconnection. You lose who you really are and stop thinking about what’s really essential. Writes about his time in the forest and what he sees. “To front only the essential facts of life.”

Quote: “We do not ride on the railroad, the railroad rides on us”

“Sounds” (234)

This passage is about the unique way of nature and how everyday is full of different sounds and images. The narrator is stating that as he watches each day pass from morning to night, he realizes that he is not wasting his time because he is admiring the way nature can chance in just moments. He is living in the present as he experiences the sounds of nature. He notices that live is beautiful and it is important that you should not miss it.

Quote: “I had this advantage, at least, in my mode of life, over those who were obliged to look abroad for amusement, to society and the theatre, that my life itself was become my amusement and ceased to be a novel.”

“Brute Neighbors” (235)

People fight over petty things. The black and red ants are meant to satirize war and fighting over unimportant things in life. He talks about the brutality of war and he thinks it’s funny that he can sit back and watch the ants fight. But then he begins to realize how similar they are to humans with the way they fight.

Quote: “And the results of this battle will be as important and memorable to those whom it comcerns as those of the battle of Bunker Hill”

“The Pond in Winter” (237)

Nature in which creatures live and flourish, there is no question, it just shows how beautiful it is. A pond in winter shows its own new beauty, but underneath that the original beauty is still there. Nature looks at rest, but life is thriving beneath the surface.

Quote: “Heaven is under our feet as well as over our head”

“Spring” (238)

Spring is when everything really flourishes. You are beginning to become overwhelmed with all the sights, sounds, and smells that come from plants beginning to blossom. The renewal of spring represents his own renewal coming out from the woods and being ready to take on the world again.

Quote: “The coming in of sring is like the creation of Cosmos out of Chaos and the realization of the Golden Age.”