Henry David Thoreau's essay, “On the Duty of Civil Disobedience”
Henry Thoreau started his essay about Civil Disobedience by saying "That government is best which governs least." He thinks men will someday be able to have a government that does not govern at all as government sometimes proves to be useful. It is often abused and corrupt so that it no longer represents the will of the people. Throaue does not want people to be associated with government and he even tells people to avoid itched also felt that it is his duty to go against slavery. Through the attack he talks about loads of injustices happening Mexico and just don’t want to sit but want to do something. Thoreau's Civil Disobedience adopts the need of change because of hos ethics over the commands of laws. It analyzes American social and policies, mostly slavery and the Mexican-American War.
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A government founded on this principle cannot be based on justice. Thoreau wants a government where right and wrong are not decided by the mainstream but by morality. He claims that it is more important to get respect for the right, rather than a get respect for maintaining law, because people do what ethically is right. Thoreau begins his essay by arguing that government have not proved themselves as much as useful and that it gains power from the majority because they are the toughest group, not because they hold the most legitimate viewpoint. He contends that people's first obligation is to do what they believe is right and not to follow the law made by the most people. When a government is unfair, he talks that people should refuse to follow the law and distance themselves from the government in general. Thoreau gets his new argument about United States which fits his criteria for a partial government, that supports slavery and practices aggressive
In 1848, David Thoreau addressed and lectured civil disobedience to the Concord Lyceum in response to his jail time related to his protest of slavery and the Mexican War. In his lecture, Thoreau expresses in the beginning “That government is best which governs least,” which sets the topic for the rest of the lecture, and is arguably the overall theme of his speech. He chastises American institutions and policies, attempting to expand his views to others. In addition, he advances his views to his audience by way of urgency, analyzing the misdeeds of the government while stressing the time-critical importance of civil disobedience. Thoreau addresses civil disobedience to apprise the people of the need for a civil protest to the unjust laws created against the slaves and the Mexican-American war.
“All machines have their friction―and possibly this does enough good to counterbalance the evil… But when the friction comes to have its machine… I say, let us not have such a machine any longer” (Thoreau 8). In Henry David Thoreau’s essay “On the Duty of Civil Disobedience,” the author compares government to a machine, and its friction to inequity. He believes that when injustice overcomes a nation, it is time for that nation’s government to end. Thoreau is ashamed of his government, and says that civil disobedience can fight the system that is bringing his country down. Alas, his philosophy is defective: he does not identify the benefits of organized government, and fails to recognize the danger of a country without it. When looked into, Thoreau’s contempt for the government does not justify his argument against organized democracy.
Henry David Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience took the original idea of transcendentalism and put it into action. His civil acts of defiance were revolutionary as he endorsed a form of protest that did not incorporate violence or fear. Thoreau’s initial actions involving the protest of many governmental issues, including slavery, landed him in jail as he refused to pay taxes or to run away. Ironically, more than one hundred years later, the same issue of equal rights was tearing the United States apart. Yet African Americans, like Martin Luther King Jr., followed in Thoreau’s footsteps by partaking in acts of civil disobedience. Sit-ins and peaceful rallies drew attention to the issue while keeping it from escalating into a much more violent problem. Thoreau’s ideas were becoming prevalent as they were used by Civil Rights Activists and the Supreme Court, in such cases as Brown v. Board of Education. The ideology that was created by Thoreau aided the activists and the government in their quest for equality and a more just system of law.
In Thoreau’s view, he felt that the government was insufficient. At times such as these, government may not always be the best way to turn, yet it provides guidelines. This theme in his essay is just another opinion. Justice cannot be fully defined in one sentence by every person. It depends on the background and the experiences one has had.
Overall in "Civil Disobedience" Thoreau used many literary techniques to support his beliefs. These included emotional appeal, a hyperbole, and a paradox. Henry Thoreau used numerous more, in "Civil Disobedience" but these three were very strong to back up his confidence in his story. Thoreau just wants people to stand up for themselves, and do what they believe in. Thoreau wants them to be their own person, and express their own opinions. Henry Thoreau believes every single person should have a say in everything. Thoreau's belief is still relevant today. One person can make a huge difference. There happen to be many people who express Thoreau's beliefs including Martin Luther King, Jr., and millions other citizens in our generation.
It does not settle in the west. It does not educate. " This defiant tone builds the reader's anger toward a useless government, that as Thoreau says, "is equally liable to be abused and perverted before the people can act through it. " Thoreau's main purpose for writing Civil Disobedience is to promote resistance against the current government system, so it is local that a government that does not help the people, should not have control over the people.
Would everyone like to see how the community is affected ? The community and neighborhood is facing some major consequences. According to “Excerpts Civil Disobedience” by Henry David Thoreau described how this one person refused to pay the taxes to the government he decides to say something but his saying resulted to him being sent to prison for trying to stand up to the government. The government has not been telling us the actual issues . Based on the excerpt from the “Civil Disobedience” there are exactly three main points to the story. The first main idea is the people have been using their own ideas to try to get a way to end the government way for all of us to live because we need to see the point for all of us to live a life in
He justified this by arguing that majority rules not because they are right but because they are physically the strongest (para. 4). I think he makes a good point here because this situation is really prevalent anywhere in the world. Sometimes the majority only represents the physical strength and not the application of conscience. Most of the established government systems, and even simple voting procedures, follow the majority-wins scheme. This results to the minority to compromise and conform with whatever the majority has decided. I almost thought that that was the end of Thoreau’s argument about majority-minority division of the society but in paragraph 22, he finally set a hope that the minority can become powerful and this notion can change the game. “A minority is powerless while it conforms to the majority; it is not even a minority then; but it is irresistible when it clogs by its whole weight” (para. 22). This line is inspiring because he motivates the minority to actually stand up for what they believe is right. Being someone who usually conforms to what has been decided, even when it is against my will, I felt motivated to be more outspoken about what I think is
In the past in this country, Thoreau wrote an essay on Civil disobedience saying that people make the law and have a right to disobey unjust laws, to try and get those laws changed.
Throughout the essay "Civil Disobedience" by Henry Thoreau, Thoreau gives multiple examples of how the government serves itself and not the individuals living in the country. The ethics of the country are poor, which is weakening the relationship in between the individuals and the state. The government exercises its power to get benefits themselves and the people don't exercise size their power to speak out. Henry Thoreau points out multiple flaws in society and gives his idea of a better government. The state needs to appreciate the individual more, they also need to govern less. Nothing will change though unless individuals act upon their principles.
Thoreau espouses that the democratic party listens to and answers the majority, which are the desires of the most powerful group. The problem with this is that the most virtuous or thoughtful group is left aside because the government only pays attention to what the strongest group says. A government functioning on this principle cannot be based on justice, because the ideas of what is right and wrong is decided by the majority, not by conscience. Thoreau writes, "Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience to the legislator? Why has every man a conscience, then? I think we should be men first, and subjects afterward. (p.178 para. 4)" He claims that it is more important for people to develop a respect for the right, instead of having a respect for the law, for it is people’s duty to do what is right.
Thoreau debates that it is almost pointless to petition the government if its “very constitution is the evil” (153). There is no need to vote if the “majority” will always outweigh the minority and will never be protected by the constitution. He claims that, “under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also prison” (154). In context, Thoreau claims that to be free, a just man will eventually have to face prison in order to stand up to the evil of the government. Additionally, Mr. King agrees “that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor” (183). Meaning, governments create unjust laws in order to feel powerful. Therefore, they will take any means necessary to enforce consequences, even if it is the cost of an individual’s freedom. As a slave, Fredrick Douglas was obligated to obey his mistress when she implemented “her husband’s percepts.” Similar to Thoreau and Mr. King, the mistress represents the injustice of those in power because slavery was the norm and the law. Due to slavery, Douglas witnessed “the tender heart became stone… (and) gave way to one of tigerlike fierceness” (428). Simply stated, the unjust laws of slavery and “irresponsible power” imprisoned Douglas and forced him to feel as an object, rather than an individual. Those in the position of power enforce the unjust law, which does not protect the rights of
To begin with, Thoreau expresses that civil disobedience should be more implemented when the just resistance of the minority is seen legally unjust to the structure conformed by the majority. Supporting his position, Thoreau utilizes the role of the national tax in his time; its use which demoralizes the foreign relationship
Henry David Thoreau was a poet, social philosopher, and educator in the early to mid- 1800s (Hampton). He graduated from Harvard University in 1837 and, upon his return to his hometown of Concord, Massachusetts, befriended Ralph Waldo Emerson, also a philosopher and poet (Hampton, “Ralph Waldo Emerson”). Emerson was also the leader of the Transcendentalist movement which was based on the idea that people should lead by example -- social reform begins with the individual, not the government -- and that the movement should be peaceful (Woodlief, Ruehl). Thoreau agreed with this approach until the United States invaded Mexico in May, 1846 (Brown, Witherell). Opposed to slavery, Thoreau saw the invasion of Mexico as an attempt by the government to extend slavery westward. In his essay “On the Duty of Civil Disobedience,” published in 1849 with the original title, “Resistance to Civil Government,” Thoreau protests against the government and states that is a man’s duty to rise up against the government when the government commits a wrong (Thoreau). In his writings, Thoreau uses the three rhetorical approaches of Pathos, Ethos, and Logos in his attempts to persuade his readers to his point of view (Heinrichs).
In his published essay titled, “Civil Disobedience,” nineteenth century American essayist, Henry David Thoreau, shares his concerns towards the obligatory responsibilities of American citizens. Throughout the years, “Civil Disobedience” has become one of the most important essays, due to the fact that it speaks of the need to resist all the injustices and mistreatments in the United States. The central themes of Thoreau’s composition are slavery, inequality and ways to tolerate injustices. His views on the treatment of slavery in the American South, treatment of Native Americans by the United States government, and the war between the United States government and Mexico urges readers to fight discrimination, which creates images of the American