Being Liked
Thoreau’s cellmate has been in jail for three months waiting trial on charges of burning down a barn. This news outrages Thoreau who is about to raise a ruckus when the cellmate stops him, telling him he’s not a troublemaker and just wants to get along. A conversation about getting along ensues and Thoreau professes that being liked means never disagreeing, musing about such a state:
“A man can suffocate on courtesy.”
Teaching in Jail
Later, Thoreau teaches his illiterate cellmate Mr. Bailey how to spell his name. Bailey is thrilled, crying out he can now leave jail an educated man before turning to Thoreau and telling him he’s a teacher. To which Thoreau replies:
“Being a teacher is like being in jail; once it’s on your record you can never get rid of it.”
Two Brothers
Henry and John Thoreau are brothers, very close and they share many of the same beliefs and values that some might term radical. How they go about manifesting those beliefs and values in public, however, stand in stark opposition which Henry describes in poetic language:
“Where I am thorns and brambles, he is a garden. Where I am a bare hill in winter, he is spring.”
Huckleberry Hounding
Lydian Emerson—wife of Ralph Waldo—responds quietly to an outburst by Henry about the trouble with love: it’s everywhere!
“Henry. If love is all around you, like huckleberries—why do you pick love?”
Then Who’s the Father of the Bride?
In the face of Lydian’s constant hounding that all Henry David Thoreau really needs is to find a wife and settle down, he finally admits to the true state of affairs:
“I’m a crusty and resolute bachelor. And Nature is my mother-in-law.”
