Discussion Questions for Letter from Birmingham Jail

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Patrick Yoon Mrs. Tschirhart English III AP-2 November 11, 2013 “Where I Lived, and What I Lived for” Discussion Questions 1. In paragraph two, Henry David Thoreau calls for a life lived for only what is necessary. He calls to cut out all materialistic things in life and stick to what is absolutely necessary in order to survive. He wants man to care for only the body and the soul and ignore all other accessories in life. Basically, he calls for simplicity in life, which is pretty obvious when he repeats the word “simplicity” three times. 2. I think that Thoreau would despise our current technologies because he would think that they are unnecessary in our lives and they just make life more complicating. He would call them a useless accessory to a man’s life. I think that electronic devices have positive effects in terms of time and communication efficiency, but they have also caused a lot of distractions in our lives. Whether or not an electronic device is a good or bad thing depends on who is using it. However as a society, I think that electronic devices have brought many benefits to the field of communication. 3. Thoreau is trying to say that there is no work that is of any importance except for work that is necessary for survival. He infers that all other work is meaningless and insignificant. His definition of work is anything that a person has to do that is not completely necessary. So in other words, anything that is unnecessary for survival and causes work is completely insignificant. 4. I think that this quote means that wishful thinking will not get you anywhere, but the truth or reality will take you wherever you want in life. For example, a person can dream all they want about going to college and get a proper job to lead a decent to good life, but it will not grant him his wish. The person would have to face reality and actually do something in
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