Question

What can the reader conclude about Henry David Thoreau from this article?
A) Although he liked nature best, he was also an exceptional politician.
B) He was a passionate advocate for the future of American consumerism.
C) His common interest in nature made him a great fan of John Muir’s writing.
D) He was comfortable living in the primitive conditions of the great outdoors.

Which BEST describes the author’s attitude toward the writers Thoreau and Muir?
A) timid and passive.
B) harshly condemnatory
C) even-handed and scholarly
D) disinterested and critical

Which BEST describes the varying interests of the two authors?
A) Thoreau longed for company while alone in nature, while Muir never felt any loneliness at all.
B) Muir sensed a divine kinship with the peace of nature, while Thoreau remained stubbornly atheistic.
C) Thoreau liked the solitude and stillness found in nature, while Muir appreciated the active wildness of nature.
D) Muir found peace in the calmness of nature, while Thoreau saw an echo of his wild soul in the animal life around him.

Answer 1

In 1845, Henry David Thoreau retreated from the world for a two-year experiment in simple living in rural New England. Though it would be well over 100 years before shopping malls, big box stores, and coffee shop chains started sprouting up across the American landscape, a rumbling of consumerism was already overtaking the country. The Industrial Revolution had taken hold, instilling monumental changes in the fields of agriculture, production, manufacturing, and transportation. These life-altering transformations forever affected the economic, environmental, and cultural climate of the country, giving us more, more, more at an always faster, faster, faster rate.

In light of these considerations, Thoreau’s experiment is all the more revolutionary. He recorded his encounters with nature in a series of essays, published in 1854 as Walden, or Life in the Woods. In one essay entitled “Solitude,” Thoreau wrote:

This is a delicious evening, when the whole body is one sense, and imbibes delight through every pore. I go and come with a strange liberty in Nature, a part of herself. As I walk along the stony shore of the pond in my shirt-sleeves, though it is cool as well as cloudy and windy, and I see nothing special to attract me, all the elements are unusually congenial to me. The bullfrogs trump to usher in the night, and the note of the whip-poor-will is borne on the rippling wind from over the water. Sympathy with the fluttering alder and poplar leaves almost takes away my breath; yet, like the lake, my serenity is rippled but not ruffled. These small waves raised by the evening wind are as remote from storm as the smooth reflecting surface. Though it is now dark, the wind still blows and roars in the wood, the waves still dash, and some creatures lull the rest with their notes. The repose is never complete. The wildest animals do not repose, but seek their prey now; the fox, and skunk, and rabbit, now roam the fields and woods without fear. They are Nature's watchmen--links which connect the days of animated life.

Thoreau’s work blazed the trail for future generations of American nature writers. One such writer was John Muir. Though born in Scotland, Muir immigrated to the United States at an early age and would become one of America’s most renowned naturalist writer, and champion of wilderness preservation. Much of Muir’s writing chronicles his experiences living in the wild terrain of the American West. In The Mountains of California, Muir wrote:

5 I chose a camping-ground on the brink of one of the lakes where a thicket of Hemlock Spruce sheltered me from the night wind. Then, after making a tin-cupful of tea, I sat by my camp-fire reflecting on the grandeur and significance of the glacial records I had seen. As the night advanced the mighty rock walls of my mountain mansion seemed to come nearer, while the starry sky in glorious brightness stretched across like a ceiling from wall to wall, and fitted closely down into all the spiky irregularities of the summits. Then, after a long fireside rest and a glance at my note-book, I cut a few leafy branches for a bed, and fell into the clear, death-like sleep of the tired mountaineer.

Through their writings, both Thoreau and Muir introduced American audiences to the untamed beauty of wild landscapes as well as the challenges of living off that land. Their work is a living testament to both the country’s natural wonders and the fortitude of the American spirit.

Answer 2

@justjm