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An Analysis Of Thoreau's Essay 'Life Without Principle'

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In one of his Transcendentalist essays, Life Without Principle, Henry David Thoreau addresses his personal issues within the society of the time and explains the solutions that he believes would solve those issues. Throughout the essay, Thoreau argues that society as a whole is on a decline. In order to prove this deterioration of society Thoreau assumes that it would be best if people worked for pleasure instead of money, if nature was preserved instead of destroyed, if people only received what they worked for, and if the daily times were not an entity. While the first assumption would be ideal, it is rather naive. If the society is not participating in these practices, the society is therefore in a state of deterioration, or already has …show more content…

~Members of society, as they often choose money over happiness in regards to work, are representative of the decline of society.~ I agree with this assumption, even though it is not entire realistic. Various interpretations of this statement would yield various outcomes, and the interpretation lies in the reader's personal balance of happiness and wealth. There are assumptions made, which I find to be correct, that influence reader's differently. On the topic of jobs in society, Thoreau writes, "Do not hire a man who does your work for money, but him who does it for love of it" (Thoreau 2). In this quote, Thoreau states that someone who is hiring should hire based on of the enjoyment of the prospecting employee, rather than hire someone because they will do work in order to be paid. This statement implies that laboring for enjoyment is superior to laboring for money. Reading this, I agree both with the statement and the assumption made by Thoreau. As written in the New York Times, "When people don’t care about their jobs or their employers, they don’t show up consistently, they produce less, or their work quality suffers" (Kramer). In these situations where the employees lack personal motivation, and are therefore working solely for money, the quality of work completed is seriously impacted. Thus, it is better to hire

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One idea from Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience that can be applied to life and society today is the prospect of not allowing Government to have absolute control in your life, and don’t let it manipulate you. Thoreau wrote Civil Disobedience while being imprisoned for something he viewed as incorrect. Whilst in prison, he unloaded his resentment to the government into this story. He encourages everyone to have their own sets of views, and regardless of what the Government says is true or not, stick to your personal views. In a quote from Civil Disobedience, Thoreau says, “Let every man make known what kind of government would command his respect…”

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All good people in a modernized, functional world would deserve justice. Yet, despite this fundamental, governments worldwide have shut down amazing fights and causes with legislation designed to oppress. History is running over with hard times, cruel fights, and devastating wars over this argument, so why is it seemingly impossible to implement a system in our worlds that would let strong fights for fairness stand a chance? At their own times and by their own methods, Henry Thoreau and Martin Luther King Jr. asked this same question. Both parties agree that equity is an imperative quality in a working society, and brilliantly took to their opposers to push that it was the people’s responsibility to act against cruelty in government.

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They also claim they are all the same; “wooden men can perhaps be manufactured that will serve the purpose as well”. Thoreau gets the point across that those who serve the state and conform with their lives can be ‘manufactured’. That they could use their own influence to find many just like them, that they are as all the same and nothing special. Thoreau wants his readers to think that the Government does not care about its people and does not always do what is best for them, and this is why it needs to be modulated. This leads me to my next example.

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Thoreau was a prominent and influential transcendentalist which meant that he believed modern society’s institutions, organizations, religions, and politics are all corrupt. He believes that people should go back to their roots in nature and be more simple-minded like our ancient ancestors who lived in nature. To think about it in more modern terms, he was practically a minimalist who believed people should only live with things essential for life, basic life necessities like food, water, and shelter. He quotes, “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived” (Thoreau 66). From the quote, we can tell that he believes that a life without living with nature and essentials only is a life wasted.

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2. Thoreau refers to civil disobedience not merely as a right but as a duty to emphasize the need for individual to have the capability to defend their honest thoughts. As it states, “I think we should be men first, and subjects afterwards” (Thoreau 941). Thoreau wishes for the individuals in society to be able to preach their truth, even if it means to display non-conformity to the government expressing unjust laws. 4.

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Henry David Thoreau’s essay “Resistance to Civil Government” was published in the year 1849 succeeding a night spent in jail for not complying to pay his taxes. Thoreau’s purpose for writing the essay was to impel people to not support or accept the government's stance on situations if they disagreed with the government's position. In Thoreau’s case one of these issues was The Mexican-american war. His opposition to the war was one of the main ideas in Thoreau’s essay. He protested the government’s war the by not paying his taxes which landed him a night in jail.

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Individuals lay the foundation of America. The Founding Fathers of this unique nation broke their allegiance with Great Britain to create an improved governing body. They desired an individual-centered authority as opposed to Britain’s monarchy, which ruled with tyranny. These Founding Fathers experienced a neglectful democratic monarchy that cared little about the ethical treatment of its people. The domineering actions of Britain challenged these historic individuals to form a new cultural identity.

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Active Participant Through Pacifist Disobedience Thoreau's, “On Civil Disobedience”, emphasizes the significant roles that authenticity and activism play in one’s life, which encourage action and renounce determinism. By presenting the main ideas that arise from this essay, I will argue that Thoreau, along with Locke’s Treatise of Government, exhibits ideas affiliated with Libertarianism. In contrast to the belief that a priori knowledge is the only kind of knowledge that expresses certainty about ontological truths, which is independent of external experience, Transcendentalism advances the idea that there is also an internal a priori kind of knowledge which is reliable and expresses each individual’s truth. According to the book, American

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Peaceful resistance is a necessity and an integral part of a society because without the ability to peacefully resist the society is not truly free. The use of peaceful resistance has been a common way of expressing a person or group of peoples ideals since Henry David Thoreau wrote his essay called Civil Disobedience in 1849. Thoreau was a famous American writer and philosopher, and the essay talks of how he believes people need to put one’s morals and ideas over laws they may find unjust (Saxby). This is the basis and definition of what peaceful resistance is. The United States Constitution puts emphasis on the individual and if an individual believes in an ideal that goes against a law, they should be able to peacefully resist, especially

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“Resistance to Civil Government” Essay In “Resistance to Civil Government”, Henry David Thoreau tells his audience “that government is best which governs least.” Thoreau was very skeptical of the government, he thought that people shouldn’t follow the law but should do what they believe is right. The message that I got from his was that people were conforming to the norm and following the laws simply because it is the law.

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Henry David Thoreau was a philosopher, poet, and a very outspoken person about society. He discusses his opinions on how people should live in his essay “Where I Lived and What I Lived For.” Thoreau's philosophy of simplicity and individualism and self-sufficiency poses many dangers for communities as a whole. Although there are many setbacks, his philosophy is, however, still viable today. Thoreau strongly advocates self-sufficiency and individualism in this essay.

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Thoreau was the first one to be credited for being the first one to use the word civil disobedience. Civil disobedience meaning the refusal to comply with certain laws or to pay taxes and fines,as peaceful form of political protest. In shorter terms it’s when someone doesn’t agree with the government and decides to act against it. Someone who practiced an act of civil disobedience was Anne Hutchinson. She didn’t agree with the minister making salvation dependent on an individual’s good work.

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Everyone knows obedience because we do obedience from young to old. But do you know what order we need to obey and what order we need to disobey? This is the most important problem because sometime we will make mistake because of disobedience and sometime we will get in to troubles as obedience. Even the younger and the elder are confused. This article will talk about the first person of disobedience and the humans’ base line of obedience.

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The majority of Henry David Thoreau’s Walden, is about the idea of opting out of society. In the chapter “Solitude” Thoreau describes how “[his] horizon bounded by woods all to [himself]” is beautiful and solely his. As he is enjoying nature Thoreau states, “There can be no very black melancholy to him who lives in the midst of Nature” (111). This theme of being alone and appreciating nature carries throughout the entirety of the book, all leading to the fact that Thoreau believes the best way to live would be without society. Thoreau cannot stand to pay his taxes because, “[he] did not pay a tax to, or recognize the authority of, the state which buys and sells men, women, and children” (145), leading to him being thrown in jail.

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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)

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