<<AMERICAN EARTH:environmental writing since Thoreau>>
In American Earth, read Henry David Thoreau’s “Huckleberries”(page26) and read Rebecca Solnit’s “The Thoreau Problem”(page 971).
First, what is Thoreau’s argument? Explain it in your own words, and through judicious use of quotation.
What is the value of the berry fields for Thoreau? what does he learn from going berry picking? how does he think land should be divided up and valued by humans? Does he agree with the way the land is being used at the time he is writing? Have things continued along those trends?
Second, what does Solnit argue about Thoreau? How has his work been interpreted? Does she agree with the dominant interpretations of his work? How would she like us to see him differently? And finally, what is the “Thoreau Problem”?
This is not a research paper, so you will be quoting only from the two essays. However, you may need to do a little research to understand some of the things Solnit is talking about. It would help to read a bit about Thoreau’s life and works.
