DIPPING INTO THE POND:
TRANSCENDENTALISM AND US
Gerard Herlihy
Marian High School, Framingham
"Approaching Walden"
July 2002
Go deeper and deeper within yourself
until nothing is left -then act.
Bhagavad Gita
Allow your life to unfold naturally
Know that it too is a vessel of perfection
Just as you breathe in and breathe out
Tao Te Ching
PURPOSE. This unit is designed to illuminate an important segment of American
literature, viz., Transcendentalism. The target audience at present is high-school juniors.
One hopes that the students will achieve the following outcomes:
a) a basic understanding of transcendentalism
b) a familiarity with the principal proponents of the philosophy
c) a recognition of the unique role played by Concord, MA in the
dispersion of transcendentalism
d) an appreciation of the importance of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry
David Thoreau as writers
e) a sense of the relevance and applicability of transcendentalism today
LEARNING ACTIVITIES. In the course of this unit, the students will engage in
numerous activities: group work, paraphrasing, oral feedback, written responses to
handouts, at least one composition, extensive journal writing (much of which involves the
reading of supplemental handouts), a self-chosen nature experience, a test. A trip to
Concord from Framingham will be included if possible, but in any case it does not have
to fall within the timeframe of this unit.
MEANS OF ASSESSMENT. Students will be evaluated in the following ways: (1)
composition(s); (2) journal entries; (3) classroom responses; (4) completion of homework
assignments; (5) test.
LEARNING STANDARDS TO BE EMPLOYED.
Language Strands 1, 2, 5
Reading and Literature Strands 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15
Composition Strands 19, 22, 23
DURATION. 2-3 weeks. The journal responses, however, will not be submitted until
three weeks after the completion of the formal unit.
DIPPING INTO THE POND:
TRANSCENDENTALISM AND US
TEXT. The American Tradition in Literature (McGraw-Hill).
Selections: Emerson, "Self-Reliance"
---, "American Scholar Address"
---, "Each and All"
---, "Hamatreya"
---, "The Rhodora"
---, "Brahma"
Thoreau, Walden (excerpts)
---, "Civil Disobedience"
Supplemental Handouts:
Dillard, "Living With Weasels"
White, "Walden"
Woolf, "The Death of a Moth"
Boston Globe editorial "Simply Impossible"
DIPPING INTO THE POND:
TRANSCENDENTALISM AND US
Stage 1. Questionnaire.
The students pair up, write quick responses to the following situations, and
share their responses. Then all pairs read aloud their responses until everyone has
reported.
1. If you had a choice between going to Hawaii or going to Alaska, which place would
be your destination, and why?
2. Given the choice, would you prefer to walk in the woods, or along a beach, or down
the streets of a big city? Why or why not?
3. What is the one daredevil thing that you hope to do sometime, if you haven't already
done it?
4. What animal would you least like to run in to unexpectedly? Why?
5. Pinpoint an occasion when you found yourself disagreeing with your friends. How
did they react to you? How did their reaction make you feel?
6. When you go to shop, do you look for brand names all the time, some of the time, or
hardly ever? Why?
7. What would be your reaction to a classmate who refused to salute the flag?
8. Without getting into details, does your family (not just your parents and siblings)
contain anyone who is considered a "black sheep," maybe even an embarrassment?
Do you agree with this assessment, or do you think it is unfair to your relative in any
way?
9. What gadget that you currently do not own would you like to get? How, in your
opinion, would it make your life better?
10. Can you think of any government policy (local, state, or federal) with which you
have trouble? What can you do about it?
HOMEWORK: journal assignments are distributed, with target date
DIPPING INTO THE POND:
TRANSCENDENTALISM AND US
Stage 2. Lecture. The Background to Transcendentalism.
Transcendentalism is introduced formally, beginning with a definition. Traits
will be enumerated and explained.
1. belief in innate ideas
2. doctrine of correspondence
3. belief in the Oversoul
4. denial of original sin
5. belief in self-reliance (the 'bootstrap myth')
6. love of nature
7. communitarianism (Fruitlands, Brook Farm)
Map of Concord distributed.
Discussion of Concord in the 1830's (factors that set up the Concord experience, such as
industrialization, immigration, waning of Puritanism).
Overview of some of the cast of characters. Extra Credit will be given to any student who
submits a report (adopting the persona of the actual subject) on any of the following:
Bronson Alcott, Orestes Brownson, William Ellery Channing, Margaret Fuller, Isaac
Hecker, Elizabeth Peabody, or Jones Very.
Certain reform movements which flourished at the time are to be highlighted, with
special emphasis on abolitionism.
Focus on EMERSON begins.
HOMEWORK: "Self-Reliance"
DIPPING INTO THE POND:
TRANSCENDENTALISM AND US
Stage 3. Paraphrasing.
Students receive sheet of excerpts from Thoreau works that are not going to be read.
They are to work individually in class on paraphrasing each quote. Upon completing the
paraphrases, each student is to group the quotes into categories that he or she has been
able, one hopes, to deduce (such as respect for nature). Feedback will follow.
Thoreau Excerpts.
1. In society you will not find health, but in nature. Unless our feet at least stood in the
midst of nature, all our faces would be pale and livid. Society is always diseased, and
the best is the most so.
2. Nature has taken more care than the fondest parent for the education and refinement
of her children…When I walk in the woods, I am reminded that a wise purveyor has
been there before me; my most delicate experience is typified there.
3. No people can long continue provincial in character who have the propensity for
politics and whittling, and rapid travelling, which the Yankees have, and who are
leaving the mother country behind in the variety of their notions and inventions. The
possession and exercise of practical talent merely are a sure and rapid means of
intellectual culture and independence.
4. Perchance, after a few thousands of years, if the fishes will be patient, and pass their
summers elsewhere meanwhile, nature will have leveled the Billerica dam, and the
Lowell factories, and the Grass-ground river run clear again, to be explored by new
migratory shoals, even as far as the Hopkinton pond and Westborough swamp.
5. The most stupendous scenery ceases to be sublime when it becomes distinct, or in
other words limited, and the imagination is no longer encouraged to exaggerate it.
6. I can fancy that it would be a luxury to stand up to one's chin in some retired swamp a
whole summer day, scenting their wild honeysuckle and bilberry blows, and lulled by
the minstrelsy of gnats and mosquitoes!
DIPPING INTO THE POND:
TRANSCENDENTALISM AND US
7.
8. The forms of beauty fall naturally around the path of him who is in the performance
of his proper work; as the curled shavings drop from the plane, and borings cluster
around the auger.
9. When I visit again some haunt of my youth, I am glad to find that nature wears so
well. The landscape is indeed something real, and solid, and sincere, and I have not
put my foot through it yet.
10. It is best to lay our plans widely in youth, for then land is cheap, and it is but too easy
to contract our views afterward. Youths so laid out, with broad avenues and parks,
that they may make handsome and liberal old men!
11. Man and his affairs, church and state and school, trade and commerce, and
manufactures and agriculture, even politics, the most alarming of them all -- I am
pleased to see how little space they occupy in the landscape.
12. In Wildness is the preservation of the World.
13. There is something servile in the habit of seeking after a law which we may obey. We
may study the laws of matter at and for our convenience, but a successful life knows
no law.
14. Above all, we cannot afford not to live in the present. He is blessed over all mortals
who loses no moment of the passing life in remembering the past. Unless our
philosophy hears the cock crow in every barnyard within our horizon, it is belated.
15. I think that there is nothing, not even crime, more opposed to poetry, to philosophy,
ay, to life itself, than this incessant business.
HOMEWORK: read and answer questions on "style passages" (handout)
DIPPING INTO THE POND:
TRANSCENDENTALISM AND US
Stage 4. Analyses of Style
"…I say in composition the What is of no importance compared with the How."
Emerson, Journal 4-22-1837
To impress upon the students the importance of Emerson and Thoreau as writers, as
masters of style, we analyze two brief passages.
Passage #1: from Emerson's "Self-Reliance"
The civilized man has built a coach, but has lost the use of his feet. He is supported on
crutches, but lacks so much support of muscle. He has a fine Geneva watch, but he fails
of the skill to tell the hour by the sun. A Greenwich nautical almanac he has, and so being
sure of the information when he wants it, the man in the street does not know a star in the
sky. The solstice he does not observe; the equinox he knows as little; and the whole
bright calendar of the year is without a dial in his mind. His notebooks impair his
memory; his libraries overload his wit; the insurance office increases the number of
accidents; and it may be a question whether machinery does not encumber; whether we
have not lost by refinement some energy, by a Christianity entrenched in establishments
and forms, some vigor of wild virtue. For every Stoic was a Stoic; but in Christendom
where is the Christian?
1. How are the first four sentences similar in structure?
2. What part do conjunctions play in these four sentences?
3. What structural change takes place in sentence five? What noticeable punctuation
change appears?
4. What do you think this structural change has to do with the theme of this paragraph?
5. Explain: "the insurance office increases the number of accidents."
6. What happens to the level of concreteness beginning with "whether we have not
lost…" and continuing to the end?
7. How would the impact of the paragraph be changed if the last sentence were placed
first? Do you think such a change would improve the meaning or muddle it?
DIPPING INTO THE POND:
TRANSCENDENTALISM AND US
Passage #2: from Thoreau's Walden ("Brute Neighbors")
I was witness to events of a less peaceful character. One day when I went out to my
woodpile, or rather my pile of stumps, I observed two large ants, the one red, the other
much larger, nearly half an inch long, and black, fiercely contending with one another.
Having once got hold they never let go, but struggled and wrestled and rolled in the chips
incessantly. Looking farther, I was surprised to find that chips were covered with such
combatants, that it was not a duellum but a bellum, a war between two races of ants, the
red always pitted against the black, and frequently two red ones to one black. The legions
of these Myrmidons covered all the hills and vales in my wood yard, and the ground was
already strewn with the dead and dying, both red and black. It was the only battle which I
have ever witnessed, the only battlefield I ever trod while the battle was raging;
internecine war; the red republicans on the one hand, and the black imperialists on the
other….In the meanwhile there came along a single red ant on the hillside of this valley,
evidently full of excitement, who either had dispatched his foe or had not yet taken part
in the battle; probably the latter, for he had lost none of his limbs; whose mother had
charged him to return with his shield or upon it. Or perchance he was some Achilles, who
had nourished his wrath apart, and had now come to avenge or rescue his Patroclus.
1.Examine the varied sentence beginnings. List in order the patterns in which the
sentences begin. For example: noun or pronoun subject; phrase; clause; conjunction;
participle, etc.
2.What is the effect of this variation of beginnings?
3.What are allusions? Explain as many of the allusions used here as you can.
4.Why do you think Thoreau uses so many allusions here? Are they a gimmick, or do
they help advance his theme? What do you think is his theme?
After completing these exercises, students are assigned a composition based on the
techniques demonstrated in either of the above models. Composition is due in one week.
HOMEWORK: "American Scholar Address"
DIPPING INTO THE POND:
TRANSCENDENTALISM AND US
Stage 5. Analysis of Emerson.
The heart of the unit begins here. This stage will last several days certainly. It begins with
the analyses of "Self-Reliance" and "American Scholar Address." Students work on the
following questions to be distributed on a handout. While carrying out these exercises,
students will also be reading the assigned poems by Emerson, to be evaluated
immediately after the completion of the essays.
"Self-Reliance"
1. Read and ingest the opening footnote in your text about the essay's background and
importance.
2. Notice the epigrammatic nature of the first three paragraphs. Also, consider how they
set the table for all that is to follow.
3. Pinpoint Emerson's admiration for infants and young boys. Explain it.
4. Explain the metaphor of Society as a 'joint-stock company.'
5. Heart of the essay: paragraphs 7-14. Explain the contest between Society and
nonconformity. Explain RWE's attitude toward consistency.
6. Paragraphs 34ff. discuss the ways in which self-reliance must work a revolution "in
all the offices and relations of men" ---what are these?
7. Sum up Emerson's comments about prayer, travel, and art.
8. In the essay's penultimate paragraph sum up Emerson's comments on property.
"American Scholar Address"
1. Read and ingest the opening footnote about the essay's background and importance.
2. Emerson begins with a fable. What is it, and how does he apply it to his own topic? In
this connection, what is the scholar's role in society?
3. What are the three main influences upon the scholar?
4. What is the special contribution made by Nature?
5. "The theory of books is noble." Why? How can books, then, become a "grave
mischief"? What is remarkable about "the character of the pleasure we derive from
the best books"?
6. What is the special contribution made by Action?
7. After discussing the influences upon the scholar, Emerson turns to the duties of the
scholar. Name them.
8. In the essay's final five paragraphs, the optimist Emerson discusses some "auspicious
signs of the coming days" -- pinpoint the two main signs for him.
9. How does the scholar fit in here?
10. Examine the final paragraph. First, be able to comment upon its syntax. Second,
discuss how it sums up the entire essay.
"Each and All," "Hamatreya," "The Rhodora," and "Brahma"
The poems are analyzed with primary focus on thematic and structural issues. Emerson's
views on symbolism are touched upon. No handouts involved for these poems.
HOMEWORK: Over several days Walden excerpts are to be completed, followed by the
essay "Civil Disobedience."
DIPPING INTO THE POND:
TRANSCENDENTALISM AND US
Stage 6. Analysis of Thoreau
As with the Emerson essays, a handout will be distributed with questions to be answered.
Walden
1. "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation." What does Thoreau mean? What is
his estimation of the relationship between old people and young people?
2. When did Thoreau begin to cut down woods for timber for what would be his cabin at
Walden Pond? Who was James Collins, and what part did he play in Thoreau's plans?
Even though he denied any intentional planning, what is interesting about the date on
which Thoreau took up residence at the pond?
3. From "Where I Lived, and What I Lived For":
-recount the experience regarding the Hollowell place and what it indicates
about Thoreau's attitudes toward property
-explain: "Olympus is but the outside of the earth everywhere."
-"Morning brings back the heroic ages." How does Thoreau use the morning both
literally and symbolically to advance his argument?
-examine the structure of the sentence beginning "I went to the woods…"
-explain: "Our life is like a German Confederacy."
-explain: "We do not ride on the railroad; it rides upon us."
-what are Thoreau's views toward the work people do, toward the post office,
toward newspapers?
-explain: "Shams and delusions are esteemed for soundest truths, while reality
is fabulous."
4. Consider the excerpt called "the battle of the ants." Review the purpose of allusions.
What does this excerpt demonstrate about Thoreau's opinions regarding Nature?
5. Why, as stated in "Conclusion," did Thoreau leave the woods? What did he learn
there?
6. Explain Thoreau's famous metaphor of the different drummer.
7. In the penultimate paragraph of the whole work, show how Thoreau uses the
examples of water and a bug to advance his argument about the bright future that lies
ahead: "Only that day dawns to which we are awake."
DIPPING INTO THE POND:
TRANSCENDENTALISM AND US
"Civil Disobedience"
1. Read and ingest the the initial footnote about this essay.
2. How does Thoreau adapt the Paine/Jefferson opinion about government?
3. Thoreau distinguishes among those who serve the state with their bodies, their heads,
or their consciences. What does he mean, and to whom does he refer in each case?
4. What distinction does Thoreau draw between eradicating a wrong and not supporting
it? What is his assessment of those who disapprove yet support?
5. After his night in prison, Thoreau considers the State "as timid as a lone woman with
her silver spoons." Why?
6. How did Thoreau get out of prison?
7. Emerson once said that "no truer American ever existed that Thoreau." Consider the
final paragraph of "Civil Disobedience." What is the essence of his political
philosophy at this point in his life?
Upon completion of the analyses, and with a provision for review, the formal unit
concludes with a test.
****The journal entries, as stated earlier, will be submitted separately three weeks after
the conclusion of this unit. The journal assignments (Stage 7) follow.****
DIPPING INTO THE POND:
TRANSCENDENTALISM AND US
Stage 7. JOURNAL ENTRIES.
1. Spend part of a day in the natural world. You might consider Garden in the Woods, or
Callahan State Park, or even your back yard. Be observant. List what you observe and
hear. Explain your responses, both pro and/or con.
2. "Simplify, simplify." In ascending order, 5 being easier and 1 being difficult, evaluate
five possessions of yours that you would find hard to get rid of, if ordered to do so.
3. In the book Into the Wild we read of a young idealist, Chris McCandless, who
abandons his money, his possessions, and his family to confront himself in nature,
specifically in Alaska. After four months he is found dead in a derelict bus. Is what
happened to him the flip side of getting close to nature, the dark side of the
wilderness experience? Were people like Thoreau overly optimistic about the
relationship between humans and the natural world?
4. Charles Lindbergh, one of the most famous American of the 20th Century, believed
his whole life in the value of technology and invention, and not limited to just
aviation. Yet he also said, "Real freedom lies in wildness, not in civilization." Do you
see a contradiction here, or can the two views go together? And, based on you reading
of Thoreau, what do you think he would say?
5. Read the handout by Virginia Woolf, "The Death of a Moth." How does it compare
thematically to Thoreau's account of the ants? What differences exist between the
writers' respective situations? Do these differences result in different responses?
6. Read the handout by Annie Dillard, "Living With Weasels." Comment upon (a) her
syntax, (b) her diction, (c) her similes/metaphors. What is her conclusion about
wildness? Do you agree with her? Why, or why not?
7. Read the Boston Globe editorial, "Simply Impossible." Do you agree or disagree?
Why, or why not?
8. Read the handout by E. B. White, "Walden," written in 1939. Enjoy, enjoy, Then
present some evidence as to why White's visit to Walden Pond was a bittersweet
experience.