Walden

Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. What are pros (positive attributes) and cons (negative attributes) of capitalism? Which of these pros and cons have you or your family experienced under American capitalism?

Teaching Suggestion: First create a definition of capitalism with students and discuss that in Walden Thoreau argued against capitalism, particularly the financial and spiritual costs of capitalism. Create a t-chart as students discuss pros and cons of capitalism.

• This research website explains four different economic systems and the world’s biggest economies.
• This finance website explains the relationship between capitalism and democracy, examples of capitalism, and pros and cons of capitalism and other economic systems.
• This economist’s blog discusses the advantages and disadvantages of capitalism and features a video in which the author critiques capitalism. 

2. Do you think Americans have become “wage slaves” under capitalism? Why or why not?

Teaching Suggestion: Discuss with students that Walden was written during a period of widespread industrialization in the northeastern United States, particularly in Massachusetts where Thoreau lived. Many people, including Thoreau, were concerned about the changes that were occurring during the transition from an agricultural society to an industrial society, the latter of which created a new socioeconomic class of wage earners.