Rhetorical Analysis On Civil Disobedience

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 makes his opinion of the government very clear in the first paragraph. "That government is best which governs least." He finds that some of the decisions that the government has made have been to benefit themselves and not the people, such as the Mexican war. The government is a small group of people compared to the rest of the

Thoreau says that the government is like a wooden gun to people. A wooden gun is useless against a real gun. The people don't get to benefit from the government, but the government benefits from the people. Thoreau also says "the government does not keep our country free, it does not settle the west, it does not educate." The people do all of this. More is done in this country by the people than the government, and the government is the one making a majority of the decisions. Thoreau believes the government is like a big machine that causes friction, instead of working against friction, it creates friction. Instead of the government working against crime and oppression, they make organized crime and oppression. They only want what brings the most profit to themselves and don't care about what it costs the people of the