Ashley Jonas. Bruck. English Iii. 9 February 2017. The

“There is a time in every man’s education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil” -Ralph Waldo Emerson in Self Reliance. Ralph Waldo Emerson was a transcendentalist. Transcendentalism is a philosophical movement that originated in the 19th century and was primarily influenced by Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. Transcendentalists’ main beliefs are: self-reliance is essential to one’s life, nature is divine, every person should have an optimistic outlook, and humanity needs to adhere to their personal morals and beliefs. In today’s world we still see a multitude of the beliefs of transcendentalism.

Thoreau painstakingly reminds the individual of the universal principle that is all people, regardless of race, color or beliefs, deserve to live lives free from the tyranny of oppression and he who does not help grant this freedom to those oppressed, is equally as damned as he who enforced it. Thoreau expanded on this idea, “There are thousands who are in opinion opposed to slavery and to the war, who yet in effect do nothing to put an end to them…they hesitate, and they regret, and sometimes they petition; but they do nothing in earnest, and with effect.” Clearly, Thoreau’s insistence is that rebuking evil is a much a moral obligation as is praising the good. In fact, he insisted, “If one honest man, ceasing to hold slaves, were actually to withdraw from this copartnership, and be locked up in the country jail therefore, it would be the abolition of slavery in America.” Such a drastic and frank statement from Thoreau only proves how steadfast he was in his beliefs that the individual could bring forth great change. Every functioning member of society deserves the chance to make a compelling difference in the lives of those around them, regardless of factors such as race. For it is those who do not protest who aid in the condemnation.

"Nonconformity: a noun, failure or refusal to conform to a prevailing rule or practice" (Nonconformity, 2017). Nonconformity is major theme in Transcendentalism along with nature, carpe diem, and simplicity of life. Transcendentalists, such as Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson, view nonconformity as essential to life and a concept that everyone should strive to achieve. Both Emerson and Thoreau use the theme of nonconformity throughout their stories to provide reasoning for why it is best for one to live life based solely on individualism.

The Transcendentalism movement raised self-confidence; it made you believe in what you thought was right, and to not conform with the things around you. It is the spiritual unit of all forms of being, with God, Man, and Nature all sharing a universal soul. The movement developed in New England around 1836, Henry David Thoreau was a leading figure. He wrote “Civil Disobedience” in 1848, it embraces the need to emphasize one's conscience over the command of laws. From the government, the men, a man’s duty, the wrongs of majority, to the unjust system. He strictly states that a nonviolent rebellion is the best way to revolt. The Transcendentalists ideal in Civil Disobedience in nonviolence, three ways Thoreau clearly demonstrates these ideals are through Ethos, Pathos, and Logos.

An influential literary movement in the nineteenth century, transcendentalism placed an emphasis on the wonder of nature and its deep connection to the divine. As the two most prominent figures in the transcendentalist movement, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau whole-heartedly embraced these principles. In their essays “Self-Reliance” and “Civil Disobedience”, Emerson and Thoreau, respectively, argue for individuality and personal expression in different manners. In “Self-Reliance”, Emerson calls for individuals to speak their minds and resist societal conformity, while in “Civil Disobedience” Thoreau urged Americans to publicly state their opinions in order to improve their own government.

Thoreau's Civil Disobedience talks about politics, government and the issues concerning these areas today. "Government is best which governs least." This motto means that the government should not have complete power over the people. The people's opinion is what matters the most. Individualism is stressed throughout his writing. To stand up for what you believe in and not bend backwards for the government is necessary. He speaks of Slavery and the war in Mexico and how is must be put to a stop. The people are responsible for this happening. Many people opposed these things yet did nothing to change it. Allowing yourself to be a part of injustice makes you a part of the negativity. Paying taxes to a corrupt government makes you

After spending a night in jail, after nonpayment of Massachusetts poll tax, Thoreau wrote his essay “Civil Disobedience”. He states that governments are mostly “inexpedient” (1577), or not practical. At best, Thoreau pushed the idea that the government isn’t useful because it is not our own. He writes “What makes this duty the more urgent is the fact that the country so overrun is not our own, but ours is the invading army” (1580). Americans listen to the rules established by the government, but it is not necessary, because the government is just the majority of people with whom are living off a different countries rules. The reason the government is even there, is because it gives the citizens some type of stable structure to live by. Thoreau feels that the government is unjust and the citizens of America should not follow rules. He feels like a reform is in need; “It is not a man’s duty, as a matter of course, to devote himself to the eradication of any, even the most enormous, wrong” and “not to give it practically his support” (1582). Thoreau and Emerson both push for social reform of the individual. Emerson wants the individual to be reliant on themselves, and not fall into the conformity of the American society. Thoreau, also teaches the individual to think different then the governmental established rules. Both authors want the readers to trust themselves, before they trust the

Thoreau is making a point that a new moral law is being established when following ones’ intuition. He suggests that, “He will put some things behind, will pass an invisible boundary; new, universal, and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves around and within him; or the old laws be expanded and interpreted in his favor in more liberal sense, and he will live with the license of a high order of beings.” This quote means that when man continues to pursue their free will to follow the path that is intended for them based on their intuition, it will push more societal boundaries and create new moral laws. These moral laws are concerned with ideals of equality and humanitarian reforms. Therefore, when man has pushed the boundaries to create these moral laws, they eventually work out for man.

“They think that, if they should resist, the remedy would be worse than the evil. But it’s the fault of the government itself that the remedy is worse than the evil. It makes it worse.” In this quote from his essay Resistance to Civil Government, Thoreau defines the folly of thinking that perturbs the everyday citizen, that if they rebel, they will receive punishment for standing up for what they believe in, and that the consequences are not worth the plight. Thus, he implores that it is the government's fault that this change cannot take place, for the fallacy is in fact that our country was built on average citizens standing up against the British taxing the colonists unfairly, therefore our own government has impeded the change that laid the groundwork for the nation that we are today, and also were at the time this was written. Thoreau believes in the imperative duty of the citizens to stand up to the injustice of government, despite the consequences, due to our own personal moral duty to ourselves and our fellow man. In this essay, Thoreau states, at least three things that he wants the reader to do, and they are: take moral responsibility for doing the right thing despite the government wishes, avoid association with the government, and to disobey unjust laws.

In “Civil Disobedience” Thoreau claims that men should act from their conscience. Thoreau believed it was the duty of a person to disobey the law if his conscience says that the law is unjust. He

In Henry David Thoreau's essay, "Civil Disobedience", he expresses the transcendental belief that all people must live as individuals, rather than assets of a just or unjust society. Throughout his essay, Thoreau includes various devices to persuade the reader to see his argument on the role that an individual has in society. Some rhetorical strategies he included were use of syntax, appeal to pathos and bandwagon appeals.

Thoreau understands the concept that the government can be “abused and perverted” (Civil Disobedience), which is ironic because the people elect their representatives. The fact that humans are so flawed makes it difficult for governments to be efficiently ran. Thoreau continues to develop his argument and says, “it has not the vitality and force of a single livingman; for a single man can bend it to his will” (Civil Disobedience). Thoreau believes that the people who choose their representatives was at their own fault. He says that a single man has the capability of deciding what he ultimately wants to do.

Henry David Thoreau was an American writer and protester, who wrote the influential essay “Civil Disobedience”. In his essay, he advocates for citizens to protest against government actions that they deem unjust and to stand up for one’s rights, putting morals before law,

Thoreau believed that the government should not be ruled by the minority just because “they are physically the strongest,” instead, we should be ruled by conscience. Furthermore, Thoreau stated that “…a corporation has no conscience,” because the corporation only cared about money, without caring about the multitude. This is still happening even nowadays. For instance, the cigarette companies are still selling cigarettes to the multitude even though they know that there are some carcinogenic materials in cigarettes that smoking cigarettes can cause cancers. They only care about money, without caring about the people who buy their products. As a result, most of the corporations had no conscience. Besides, people should also be conscientious. We should use our brains to think before we act. For example, the soldiers of the army had no conscience because they act like machines without thinking what they were doing. “The mass of men serve the state thus, not as men mainly, but as machines.” In brief, Thoreau believed that we should be ruled by conscience instead of the inexpedient government which had no conscience. Besides, we should do something to stop the “machine.”