ipl-logo

Comparing Thoreau's Walden And Civil Disobedience

1323 Words6 Pages

Delene Daye History 20 Walden and Civil Disobedience In the novel Walden, written by Henry Thoreau, a transcendentalist and writer, Thoreau has decided to embark on a new adventure, and find the true ways of life of humans. In this novel, he decides that he wants to “abandon” civilization in order to live deliberately. He states that society forces people to live a hurried life full of waste, and this quality of life is the sole reason humans have yet to evolve. In his mind, society has created a race of materialistic individuals, and the more materialistic and complicated their lives become, the more delusional and naive these individuals are of reality. Thoreau, instead, seeks simplicity and solitude and leaves for Walden Pond in the woods to discover what nature has to teach him. He wants to experience the essential facts of life, and learn from it so that he cannot, at the end of his life, say that he hadn’t truly lived. For almost two years, Thoreau lived at Walden Pond exploring, embracing, and being one with his …show more content…

Absolutely speaking, the more money, the less virtue; for money comes between a man and his objects, and obtains them for him; and it was certainly no great virtue to obtain it…” This quote further supports the idea that Thoreau opposes to materialism, and rather views it as part of his definition of virtuous action. I agree with Thoreau’s quote for several reasons. I believe that wealth can sometimes bring about greed, and once greed is acquired, many wealthy individuals will do whatever it takes to achieve more riches. In some ways, materialistic wealth can become an addiction, and in the act of achieving more wealth, it can be easy for individuals to lose their morals and virtue. This effect is not something uncommon, and can be viewed in many cases throughout history. The desire for more almost always overpowers and morphs their moral and virtuous

Show More
Related
648 Words | 3 Pages

Henry David Thoreau, an American poet, has published works that have questioned what it means to be "normal" in society. He has taught readers to go out and question what their reality is. In one particular text, Thoreau begs questions that--to this day--people question. In Civil Disobedience, by Henry David Thoreau, he uses words to inspire people even to this day.

Read More
422 Words | 2 Pages

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

Read More
2124 Words | 9 Pages

Resistance to Civil Government (Civil Disobedience) is a dissertation written by American abolitionist, author and philosopher Henry David Thoreau published by Elizabeth Peabody in the Aesthetic Papers in 1849. Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) was born and lived almost his life in Concord, Massachusetts. After finishing public and private school in Concord he attended the prestige Harvard University. He excelled at Harvard despite leaving school for several months due to health and financial setbacks. Mr. Thoreau graduated in the top half of his class in 1837.

Read More
1845 Words | 8 Pages

Civil Disobedience Compare and Contrast Henry Thoreau and Martin Luther King both wrote persuasive discussions that oppose many ideals and make a justification of their cause, being both central to their argument. While the similarity is obvious, the two essays, Civil Disobedience by Thoreau and Letter from a Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King Jr. do have some similarities. King tries persuading white, southern clergymen that segregation is an evil, unfair law that ought to defeat by use of agitation of direct protesting. Thoreau, on the other hand, writes to a broader, non-addressed audience, and focuses more on the state itself. He further accepts it at its current state, in regard to the battle with Mexico and the institution of slavery.

Read More
1102 Words | 5 Pages

As society faced great inequities in the 19th and 20th centuries, activists and philosophers sought to inform the general public. At the turn of the 19th century, Thoreau presented his writing of a "Civil Disobedience" as an argument of the injustices of the tyrannical government after spending a night in jail. Likewise, Martin Luther King Jr. presented his argument to society as he was jailed in 1963. In his "Letter from Birmingham Jail," King perceives the injustice of the African American community as a primary goal as to the need for the advocation of the whole population. Whereas in Thoreau's "Civil Disobedience," it addresses the injustices in broader terms and stresses the despotic government.

Read More
897 Words | 4 Pages

The main similarity in the writings of Thomas Jefferson and Henry David Thoreau is the idea of revolution against an abusive government. The main difference is the context in which each document was written, the Declaration of Independence as the colonies were rebelling against Great Britain and forming their own government, and Civil Disobedience as criticisms of the government developed within nearly seventy-five years after the signing of the Declaration. Both Jefferson and Thoreau share ideas of revolution, although overthrowing the government is seen in many cases as illegal. Both documents share a common theme of revolution, and both authors believe the best way to move toward a better government is civil disobedience. Jefferson and Thoreau believe that whether it is the struggle for independence or being freed from injustices of the government, civil disobedience and revolution are necessary in order to live in a society based on freedom.

Read More
162 Words | 1 Pages

Henry David Thoreau’s “On the Duty of Civil Disobedience” (first presented in 1848 and first published 1849) insists, — “That government is best which governs least”, or alternatively, — “That government is best which governs not at all.” Thoreau develops and supports his thesis statement by explaining what government is at best (an expedient) and usually is (inexpedient), and by giving a specific and current example to his readers. The author’s purpose was to educate the masses regarding civil disobedience, teaching them not only that it’s allowed, but that it’s a duty upon them in order to create an ideal government or even world. Thoreau’s intended audience is clearly the people who, as Thoreau himself said, “would not have consented to

Read More
812 Words | 4 Pages

Fighting For Your Rights Without Fighting At what point is it necessary to take matters into your own hands? Some say it is when those in power, such as the government, abuse that power, and do not do what is best for their citizens. Martin Luther King Jr. and Henry David Thoreau each took peaceful action when their government acted in an unjust manner. King defended these actions in his letter titled, “Letter to Birmingham Jail” and years before Thoreau made his point in a speech that later became an essay titled, “Civil Disobedience”.

Read More
1159 Words | 5 Pages

Consequently, what Thoreau proposed was simplicity rejecting modern civilization to return to nature and let the individual to develop his/her highest possibilities. Thoreau not only made a critique of the modern society as Emerson did, but also he practiced his ideology: he experienced that life is better without crowd, luxuries and complexity. The transcendentalist poet spent two year close to nature. He lived at Walden Pond where he wrote entire journals recounting his experience. Thoreau is well known for his book “Walden” (1854).

Read More
801 Words | 4 Pages

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.

Read More
1198 Words | 5 Pages

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)

Read More
575 Words | 3 Pages

In Walden, written by Henry David Thoreau, the author expresses the immense longing that we, as human beings, need to give up our connection to our ever-growing materialism in order to revert back to self-sufficient happiness. In Walden, the reader is able to infer that Thoreau feels as if we are becoming enslaved by our material possessions, as well as believes that the study of nature should replace and oppose our enslavement, and that we are to “open new channels of thought” by turning our eyes inward and studying ourselves. Thoreau feels that we are becoming enslaved by our material possessions. As stated in the chapter “In the Where I Lived, and What I Lived For”, Thoreau states that “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.” (972).

Read More
748 Words | 3 Pages

You can’t walk in the woods and see a leaf that doesn’t quite know if it wants to fall to the ground or stay on the tree. Thoreau noticed this, and thought that if people could be decisive in the same way that nature was, then they could “live deep and suck out all the marrow of life… live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put as to put to rout all that was not life… cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner…” (Walden 771) This is something that Thoreau highly valued. He wanted to live as his own person, which was, in his mind, best accomplished by living in nature and not being involved with the government.

Read More
637 Words | 3 Pages

Thoreau emphasizes living simply by reducing the excess in our live to only the bare essentials, and relying on oneself to do so. Thoreau claims that the only way to

Read More
658 Words | 3 Pages

One of the greatest leaders that greatly impacted society and still influences culture today is Mahatma Gandhi. Mahatma Gandhi was an advocate for peaceful resistance, he believed in standing up against injustices with peace. On the contrary, there is another great author who impacted society with his literature, and his name is Henry David Thoreau. Henry Thoreau believed in a much different manner of resisting in society. He believed in nonconforming and breaking the law.

Read More

More about Comparing Thoreau's Walden And Civil Disobedience

Related Topics

Open Document