Analysis Of Thoreau's 'Civil Disobedience'

Throughout all of time, people have needed to live according to their own agendas. Being forced to live a certain way has only caused trouble. That is why Henry David Thoreau supported civil disobedience to help people live according to their own beliefs. In the essay “On Civil Disobedience” by Henry David Thoreau, the author defined and explained the effect of civil disobedience. Thoreau defined it as, civil disobedience is any peaceful action that demonstrates the disagreement of a person or persons with their government.

Within all democracies, a government’s power and sovereignty lie with its citizens. Undoubtedly, there lies an importance with the virtue and character of the citizenry, as they are inherently responsible for dictating the direction of a government’s policy and laws. Over the course of American history, many politicians and scholars have come to similar conclusions regarding the importance of moral citizens. However, statesmen have shared varying levels of concern for government’s role in developing such citizens. Some of the first groups to debate this were the Antifederalists and Federalists.

The American government was founded by democratic principles in order to serve the will of the people. Thus the people and their opinion are the basis of American government. Political scientist V. O. Key Jr. stated that public opinion must not only exist, but it must be heard by policy decisions (Yolaf, 266). Public opinion has the power to justify president’s policies, for interest groups to promote their causes, and for journalists to describe public preferences. One popular way to show public opinion is through voting.

By restraining the influence of the government on daily life, the United States will be able to return to the great nation of freedom; a nation in which its founding fathers so vehemently fought to build. Similarly, politics should not be controlled strictly according to political parties, and Coolidge urged people to support the values they believe in, not a certain political party. In today’s world, I think many politicians would benefit from acting in the way of doing the right thing, rather than supporting sides merely based on political affiliation. For this reason, I am passionate about educating myself as much as possible to candidates beliefs, and I look forward to being able to take part in my first elections in coming

Henry David Thoreau 1817-1862 born and raised in Concord, was a popular student in Harvard. Despite his financial and health deformities he was able to graduate from the university. By 1837 America was facing an economic depression and jobs were not easily available. Thoreau began to write poems and essays of transcendentalism to escape from the development and also to emphasize on nature. Therefore, he spent two years in Walden Pond (Schneider, 2013).

Thoreau mentions it too, “..bt if it is of such nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then I say break the law” (Thoreau 6). They both encourage the individual to break the law if they believe it is unjust, there is nothing wrong with breaking the law if following would hurt you, the individual has the right to not follow any injustice. Both King and Thoreau want to end social injustice to improve the world. It is the responsibility of the individual to resist injustice since the government acts unjust due to the lack virtue, morality, and stamina from its people and leader. Although the government is filled with injustice Thoreau and King have hope that one day one individual will put an end to social

The United States currently faces a severe problem with one of their governmental processes. In the democratic system of the United States, politicians are elected by voting from the citizens, in most cases. The problem the United States is facing is that people are no longer voting in elections for officials. This problem is discussed in the article, “In praise of low voter turnout”, written by Charles Krauthammer. The main idea behind this article is that voters are no longer interested in politics, as they were in previous generations.

Throughout history there have been many political changes that are either supported, or not, by citizens. In the given passage from, "Civil Disobedience," by Thoreau, a perspective of disagreeing with the government ways, is provided. Thoreau explains how a government should be in comparison to how it really is by utilizing his words to set the tone and mode, imagery to achieve his audience's understanding, and diction to make his writing scholarly. Although tone and mode are not directly stated, you can infer that Thoreau meant for his writing to be taken as serious and powerful. His implementation of words such as, "inexpedient," "execute," " integrity," and "command," makes one think about their lawful rights and reflect on what rights are supported or

Thoreau's worked "nothing savagery" for unsuitable government. Common Disobedience recommend why individuals improve government, and why they keep despondent circumstance for their general public. The vast majority perplexed the solid power since Thoreau expressed individuals. " cannot

What Thoreau means by the Civil Disobedience is that every person should be govern more by his own moral compass that gives him much clearer answer to his deeds, rather than some laws of a government. “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.” (1)

Thoreau’s view on the society as he states, “In most cases there is no free exercise whatever of the judgment or of the moral sense; but they put themselves on a level with wood and earth and stones; and wooden men can perhaps be manufactured that will serve the purpose as well” go to show that it was harder to have individuality and to refuse the governments ways. Now-a-days the practice of civil disobedience has allowed citizens to practice non-conformity with the protection of amendments but back then while the nation was just growing they had to have more power and that, “so long as the interest of the whole society requires it, that is, so long as the established government cannot be resisted or changed without public inconveniency, it is the will of God that the established government be obeyed, and no longer" as quoted by Paley. The society was most likely pushed towards acceptance of the government and weren’t as self-reliant to make change in their

The key to deconstructing Thoreau's argument is to understand his hierarchy of government and the individual. Thoreau's ideal communion between the individual and the state is manifest by the individual as a "higher and independent power". This relationship is entertained in Civil Disobedience in the analysis of Thoreau's 1846 imprisonment, in which Thoreau demonstrated freedom as an internal and subjective

Mr. Thoreau argues that people should not allow any government to control or atrophy their thoughts or beliefs. Mr. Thoreau was an also remained a devoted abolitionist and has written

Individuals form the cornerstone of American identity by investing themselves to improve their country. Individuals act as the red blood cells to American, providing life-giving oxygen to the body. Like blood, the prosperity of the United States rests in the hands of the people. Henry David Thoreau discusses the importance of the individual in his essay “Civil Disobedience.”

In the United States, people always talk about freedom and equality. Especially they want elections could be more democratic. In American Democracy in Peril, Hudson’s main argument regarding chapter five “Election Without the People’s Voice,” is if elections want to be democratic, they must meet three essential criteria, which are to provide equal representation of all citizens, to be mechanisms for deliberation about public policy issues, and to control what government does. Unfortunately, those points that Hudson mentions are what American elections do not have. American elections do not provide equal representation to everyone in the country.