Passage (Henry David Thoreau, *Walden*, 1854, Ch. II "Where I Lived, and What I Lived For"): "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion." Which of the following best captures the main reason Thoreau gives for going to the woods?
ATo escape the social obligations of life in town and live in solitude.
BTo confront the essential nature of life directly and avoid the discovery, at death, that he had not really lived.
CTo prove that human beings can survive without modern conveniences.
DTo write a book about the natural history of Walden Pond.
Answer & Solution
Correct answer: B. To confront the essential nature of life directly and avoid the discovery, at death, that he had not really lived.
Thoreau states his purpose in the opening sentence and unpacks it through the paragraph: he went *to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life... and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived*. The whole paragraph is a meditation on **direct confrontation with the essential** as protection against an unlived life.
- **A** is a plausible misreading — solitude is *adjacent* to Thoreau's project but not its stated goal. The stated goal is *facing essentials*, not *avoiding society*.
- **C** introduces a survivalist agenda Thoreau doesn't articulate.
- **D** is what Thoreau *did* during his time at Walden, but the paragraph is not about *writing a book*; it is about *living deliberately*.
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