Henry David Thoreau Today, we will look take a closer look at the life and beliefs of Henry David Thoreau, one of the most well-known Transcendentalists. On the next slide are four quotations from Thoreau’s works. You will be responding to one of the four quotations.

Pick one quote and write a 3 sentence answer 1. ‘All life is an experiment. The more experiments, the better.’ 2. ‘It is not what you look at that matters; it is what you see.’ 3. ‘Success is usually what comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.’ 4. ‘The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it.’ 1. Explain-What does the quote mean? 2. Evaluate-Do you agree or disagree? 3. Examine-Why? Give kids 5-7 minutes to write independently. After, they will be talking about tables for 8 minutes. Each person should take two minute to explain what their quote means and what they said in response. After kids discuss at tables, you can have one representative for each quote explain what it means whole-class.

Henry David Thoreau On the following slides are some key dates and events in Thoreau life. Add these dates/events to your notes.

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) 1837-begins teaching at a public school in Boston, MA 1838-fired from his job for encouraging students to defy the school’s dress code; starts his own school 1843-begins tutoring Emerson’s children and befriends him: “Do you keep a journal?” 1845-moves to Walden Pond, in a cabin owned by Emerson, about 1 mile from his nearest neighbor and 3 miles from Concord, MA 1846-Thoreau spends a night in jail for refusing to pay taxes for six years. Emerson visits him “Henry, what are you doing in jail?” “Waldo, what are you doing out there?” 1847-leaves Walden Pond to return to Boston The ‘key’ events in Emerson’s life include the death of his wife (he was scarred forever after and haunted by her) that began his crisis of faith and led to him looking ‘inward’ for strength and assurance as opposed to outward and his formation of the Transcendental Club

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) 1849-Emerson and Thoreau have a ‘falling out’, partly due to Thoreau’s ‘radical’ view on resistance to government and laws 1851-Became ‘fascinated’ by Charles Darwin; spent most of his time as a land surveyor and wrote detailed observations of the wilderness surrounding Concord, MA 1852-1855-Became very interested in environmentalism and conservationism; wrote several essays advocating ceasing manufacturing and industry in order to preserve nature 1862-After suffering from tuberculosis and bronchitis intermittently since 1835, Thoreau contracted pneumonia after a late night excursion to count the rings on tree trunks and died on May 6, 1862 in the presence of his friend Amos Bronson Alcott. His last repeated words were “Now comes good sailing.”

Emerson on Thoreau After Thoreau’s death, Emerson made the following comment on his long-time friend (though the two grew distant in later years) “He was bred to no profession; he never married; he lived alone; he never went to church; he never voted; he refused to pay a tax to the State; he ate no flesh; he drank no wine; he never knew the use of tobacco; and though a naturalist, he used neither trap nor gun. He chose, wisely no doubt for himself, to be the bachelor of thought and Nature.... No truer American existed than Thoreau.”

Walden (1854) “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately…” In his essay Walden, Thoreau documents his two years living in a cabin on Walden Pond outside of Concord, MA. In this essay, Thoreau discusses his views on the importance of simplicity, solitude and conservation. This essay is an example of Thoreau’s belief that all life is made up of a series of experiments and the only way to figure out what the world is like is to have as many experiences as possible. Give students the essay. Same deal as last week. We will close-read the first paragraph together in class tomorrow and then they will complete the rest on their own. Tell them they can begin looking at the essay tonight if they want. The close-reading questions should be completed by Thursday.

Plato’s Allegory of the Cave: ALLEGORY: a story where EVERYTHING is symbolic Summarize the meaning of this allegory What does this mean about enlightenment? What does it suggest about society? What does it suggest about reality?