Henry David Thoreau 's Civil Disobedience

Henry David Thoreau was a simplistic man and philosopher well known for his attacks on American controversies. Thoreau was full of opinions and had many problems with the way the United States was run. He had strong opposition towards slavery and spoke his mind when it came to politics. Especially when it came to the Mexican American war, which he heavily disliked. Ralph Waldo Emerson heavily influenced him, and introduced him to the ideas of transcendentalism, a philosophy vital to Thoreau's way of thinking and writing. Thoreau was not an agitator. He did not believe that there shouldn’t be a government, but only a better one than currently existed. The government would not improve itself, so he argued; it was a patriotic man's duty to refuse to support it.

Thoreau asserts and criticizes how the government is running and explaining how it has an effect to its people. This piece was written in the 19th century and took place on the year of 1849. Thoreau expresses that when men are prepared to transmit themselves by behaving wisely and responsibly, that will be the government they will have. Thoreau is an 19th century white male who attempts to grab the attention of a white audience. His purpose is to inform the people of how the government is handling the laws and unjust American policies. Thoreau's  tone appears to be defiant in his writing to the clamor as to why he refuses to pay his taxes and chose to protest in civil disobedience. He argues the need for the individual action to a higher

A final controversial stand Thoreau takes against man and government is that it is mans duty to not participate in the injustices created by the government and his fellow man. He made an example out his own thoughts by not paying taxes for six years, and spending the night in jail for them. Thoreau also states that one should not follow the government if it requires you to perform injustices, he in turn suggest you be the `counter-friction' in the political machine in hopes of making it wear away sooner. In addition to that, he comments on the rich and how they continually sellout their virtues to the institution that helped get them to their place of power and wealth. He suggests

Henry David Thoreau 's writing, Civil Disobedience, he explains how he does not like civilized societies

In Henry David Thoreau’s “Civil Disobedience”, Thoreau makes the claim that the best form of government is a government that doesn’t govern at all. Thoreau’s paper pushes for the people to begin following the will of their conscience rather than blindly and foolishly follow the unjust idea of “majority rule”. Throughout the paper Thoreau makes a point of stating that “majority rule” is simply the will of the upper-class being forced into action over the rights and wills of the poorer minority. This paper openly criticizes and condemns many institutions and policies of the American National government. Because Thoreau wrote this paper during the Mexican-American War he uses in it, in addition to slavery, to reinforce his statement of all political decisions merely being the wills of the strongest citizens put into action. For the purpose of this assignment the paper has been divided into three significant parts, Thoreau did not have these divisions. In the third part of Thoreau’s paper he begins writing about his own acts of “civil disobedience”. He moves from his discussion of his night in jail, talked about in the second part, to his various reasons for accepting or refusing to pay certain taxes. From here Thoreau continues to state that he is not sure how long he can maintain his resolve to deny the government, stating that he is in constant search of a reason to follow its laws. Thoreau then explains that the reason he did not follow the conventional paths of reform is

Henry David Thoreau wrote in Civil Disobedience that in order to change society one had to go against it and rely on oneself in order to bring about change. Thoreau believed that the government should be improved upon and made more limited for the further advancement of individuality; a popular transcendentalist thought.

Civil disobedience, or the act of peacefully resisting a law, has been a fundamental part of society for centuries. Henry David Thoreau in 1849 wrote in his essay, “On the Duty of Civil Disobedience,” that if a law is unjust that one not only has the right to oppose the law, but that they are in fact obligated to break the law. In this light, peaceful resistance to laws not only positively impacts society, but is indeed crucial to maintaining a fair and just society. For without this resistance, citizens would go about their business simply accepting the oppression under which they live; resistance to unjust laws is the driving force behind positive change in society, which can be seen in resistance movements throughout history.

I would agree with the way Thoreau engaged in the protest due to the emphasis established on his beliefs to demonstrate how unjust the American Government is. He believed that the Government is supposed to accomplish rightful undertakings and help citizens. He refused to pay the tax because he saw nothing qualified of the Government to satisfy his requirements. His protest introduced the idea that little by little, laws eventually change since the Government mostly depends on the contributions made by the citizens that support it. In addition, this also introduced the way people should oppose laws. If you’re ready to give up anything for the cause you believe in, even if it means getting arrested, you may achieve the ideal life you

Thoreau knew this was wrong so he broke a law by not paying the taxes. Later he was thrown in jail only to believe even more that the government was “enslaving” people by making laws. In jail he felt he was free. He had no responsibilities. He was not required to do anything.

Thoreau wrote Civil Disobedience in 1848 when he was in jail because he refused to pay his taxes. He refused to pay his taxes because he believed that slavery was wrong and that it went against the Constitution. He was eventually arrested for tax evasion after he publicly criticized the United States’ invasion of Mexico because he thought

Thoreau’s action of civil disobedience against the State is slightly hypocritical when you take into account the lack of true consequences he had taken for his actions. Thoreau did not have to face punishing consequences of his actions lessening the validity of his philosophical point. He sat in jail one night compared to others that have been beaten or even killed standing up for what they believe in. While Thoreau made justification for civil disobedience to the laws of the State, his actual actions of this disobedience relied on one’s tolerance for the pain and trouble one would encounter. Henry David Thoreau noted that his fellow citizens would “dread the consequences of disobedience to [the State] to their property and families” (8). He argued that the moral incentive for such actions was so strong it would be “impossible for a man to live honestly and at the same time comfortably in outward respects” (8). Thoreau did not live without comfort, did not truly deal with the consequences of his disobedience to the State. Thoreau builds his essay’s thesis around the fact that for not paying his taxes, he spent a night in jail. It was only one night because his tax was paid by a

The 1800s were a time of civil discombobulation, with the height of the decade being The Civil War, no other civil issue could top it, except for one thing: the Mexican War. A war funded by President Polk, that failed to pass through Congress. This sparked controversy on a massive scale, especially in the eyes of Henry David Thoreau, an African American who refused to pay the poll tax which was required in that day and age. He was put in jail for one night for his crime, when he came out, he felt compelled to write an essay on why the government in that time was corrupt. This essay argues how Thoreau made a convincing argument in his written lecture Resistance to Civil Government.

In the 1920s an age of relative affluence, Thoreau was popularly seen as a rebel. “Thoreau’s ideals are inoperative in the real, everyday world, and because he will not compromise his ideals, at all, they have no effect upon the world: they are politically useless. (TAMU)” Another Critic, Vernon Parrington, would praise Thoreau as truly original and independent. “In the 1930s, James MacKaye would turn to the politics and denounce them, because he saw no cooperation and devoid of reason. (TAMU)” Starting, into the 1940’s there was plenty universal appeal, “in the aspect of usefulness”(TAMU). In 1960’s Thoreau became not only relevant but almost a popular icon. Emerson, another famous writer said “He was bred to no profession; he never went to church; he never voted; he refused to pay a tax to the State; he ate no flesh; he drank no wine; he never knew the use of tobacco; and, though a naturalist, he used neither trap nor gun.” Meyers claimed that Thoreau was violent and nonviolent which would seem to follow from the dichotomy of messages in “Resistance to Civil Government.

Henry David Thoreau, in his essay Civil Disobedience, criticizes the inexpedient government and urges the individual to break unjust laws. He argues that the government is not always useful because it derives its power from the majority. The majority has the most influence in the government because they are the strongest in a society not because they have the most legitimate viewpoints. Thoreau suggests that when the government deprives individuals from

Henry David Thoreau, an American essayist, philosopher, and historian around the 1800s, composed “Civil Disobedience” to uncover the rapid downfall of the American Government. Thoreau highlights “That Government does best when it does not govern at all”; and when the men are most ready for It, that will be the type of Government they will have, a Government-free one (Thoreau 1). Thoreau expresses his bravery in his writing to bear his nationalistic attitude, showing his hostility towards the American Government during that time; he asserts that the Government, in it’s present state is sinister and corrupted because the Government favors slavery and the Mexican war. Throughout his story “Civil Disobedience”, Thoreau argues that the American