Beerdohm Questions
1. Explain the distinction Beerbohm makes between going out for a walk and being taken out for a walk. /2
2. Beerbohm offers the excuse “I have some letters to write”. List three reasons why this excuse does not work. /3
3. Identify Beerbohm’s thesis for his essay. Remember, depending on the type of essay--informal or formal--it might not be explicitly stated. /1
4. With specific reference to the text of the essay and the criteria for a formal and informal essay (see content area), determine if Beerbohm’s essay is informal or formal. /3
5. What do you think Beerbohm means by the sentence “My objection to it is that it stops the brain?” /1
6. Although Beerbohm wrote “Going Out for a Walk” in 1918, there are probably many people today who would agree with his opinion about being taken for a walk.
a) What objection to being taken for a walk might someone offer in today’s world? (The excuse of writing letters does not really fit.) /1
b) Select an activity that is popular in today’s world – going shopping in the mall, skateboarding, playing video games, watching TV, playing sports…– what are two objections/reasons that people, who do not want to engage in this activity, might give to someone who is pestering them to be involved. /2
1. Beerdohm distinction between going out for a walk and being taken out for a walk is that being taken out for a walk is almost forced, you are not given a choice. However even though he says this he still goes and is known to have done so when he says: “It is a fact that not once in all my life have I gone out for a walk. I have been taken out for walks; but that is another matter. Even while I trotted prattling by my nurse's side I regretted the good old days when I had, and wasn't, a perambulator”
2.
2. The three reasons why the excuse “I have some letters to write” does not work is stated when Beerbohm says: “(1) It isn't believed. (2) It compels you to rise from your chair, go to the writing-table, and sit improvising a letter to somebody until the walkmonger (just not daring to call you liar and hypocrite) shall have lumbered out of the room. (3) It won't operate on Sunday mornings.”
3. The thesis for Beerbohm's essay is that walking is absurd and an utter waste of time.
I believe that the thesis I have written for Beerbohm's essay is correct because he sounds against walking and examples in doing so can be found when he tries to make excuses for walking like saying “ I have some letters to write” and when he claims that it “...stops the brain”.
4. Max Beerbohm’s Essay “Going Out For A Walk” is seen as an informal essay due to the large amount of informal characteristics. For example, the author's viewpoint is in the first person and displays emotion and tone. He uses the pronoun “I” many times as well as making his own claims, only giving evidence of his own, and connecting his points with his life like when he says: “Experience teaches me that whatever a fellow-guest may have power to instruct...
