Comparing Night Thoreau Spent In Jail And A Time For Choosing

Transcendentalism is commonly seen everywhere. It can be seen in pieces of literature, in plays like The Night Thoreau Spent In Jail, and even in speeches from famous leaders like “ A Time for Choosing” by Ronald Reagan. Transcendentalism is a different way of thinking in which you focus on yourself rather than society. As a transcendentalist, you focus on simplifying your life, being confident in yourself, and not conforming or listening to society. You focus on the importance of nature and believe in a higher power. Transcendentalism is commonly seen in both pieces of literature and famous speeches. For example, in the speech “A Time for Choosing”, we see many of the characteristics of transcendentalism, such as confidence. “We must have

For example, Reagan says in paragraph five, “The Founding Fathers knew a government can’t control the economy without controlling the people,” (Reagan 5). This quote goes against the idea of self-reliance. It goes against this because he is saying how the people should let the government control them if they want a strong economy. The keys to transcendentalism are relying only on yourself, and not letting yourself be controlled by anyone else, and this breaks both of those. Also, this goes against nonconformity. This quote goes against nonconformity because he is saying how the citizens need to conform and let the government control

The Play is about a man named Henry David Thoreau and follows the events up to him being jailed for not paying his taxes. The speech is about how Americans have the choice to either end the high taxation that they are dealing with, or coward away and let the government control their lives. In the play, Thoreau says, “I will not pay one copper penny to an unjust government!” (Lee, Lawrence 60). This quote shows the idea of Civil disobedience because he is refusing to pay his taxes which is a crime. He is breaking the law because of what he believes in, he thinks the government is taking our freedom so we should refuse to pay them. Similarly, in the speech, Reagan says, “Have we the courage and the will to face up to the immorality and discrimination of the progressive tax,” (Reagan 11). This is also civil disobedience because he is saying how the U.S. citizens shouldn’t pay the taxes and that they should stand up against the government. These two quotes are closely related for several reasons, but the main one is that they think the government is taking our freedom. In the play, Henry refuses to pay his taxes because he won’t give money to an unjust government. In the Speech, Reagan is saying that we need tax reform because the government is too involved is too involved in economics, and being unfair by taking so much. However, they both