Thoreau On Thoreau Essay, Research Paper
Philosophers, historiographers, writers, and politicians have spent centuries chew overing the relationship between citizens and their authorities. It is a inquiry that has every bit many considerations as there are signifiers of authorities and it is seldom answered satisfactorily. A comparatively modern theoretician, writer Henry Thoreau, introduced an thought of adult male as an person, instead than a topic, by exhaustively depicting the manner a citizen should populate many of his plants. He indirectly supplements the statements he presents in his essay Civil Disobedience through a comprehensive choice of proverbs found in his other plants. In peculiar, the phrases & # 8220 ; A simple and independent head does non labor at the command of any prince & # 8221 ; and & # 8220 ; To be awake is to be alive. I have ne’er met a adult male who is rather awake & # 8221 ; back up many of the statements in Civil Disobedience because they help to explain the complex thoughts Thoreau nowadayss.
The phrase & # 8220 ; A simple and independent head does non labor at the command of any prince & # 8221 ; regards the duties of a adult male to his ain consciousness? it is a responsibility that can non be revoked by any signifier of autocrat. Rather than suggesting at a type of lawlessness, this statement simply describes each adult male? s responsibility to executing justness in all his actions. This does non mention to any & # 8220 ; adult male? s responsibility? to give himself to the obliteration of any, even the most tremendous wrong ; he may still decently have other concerns to prosecute him ; but it is his responsibility, at least, to rinse his custodies of it, and, if he gives it no idea longer, non to give it practically his support & # 8221 ; ( 681 ) . The term & # 8220 ; simple & # 8221 ; does non mention to an developing sense of morality ; it describes a province of head in which the construct of justness is so defined that contradictions can non be. To labor, as it is presented in this citation, means to give ideals for the interest of conformance or jurisprudence. The lone existent power the State holds over any person is the promise of beastly force ; it & # 8220 ; ne’er deliberately confronts a adult male? s sense, rational or moral, but merely his organic structure, his senses & # 8221 ; ( 687 ) . Therefore, many acts the State requires will be unfair? they can and will coerce a adult male to break one’s back for the interest of an ordeal he does non believe in. As Thoreau notes in Civil
Disobedience, “a wise adult male will merely be utile as a man” ( 678 ) . In kernel, Thoreau believes that a adult male who toils at any governing establishment? s command merely because it bid him to make so give his ain installations as a human being. He so becomes nil more than a adult male put “on a degree with wood and Earth and rocks? Command [ ing ] no more respect than work forces of straw, or a ball of dirt” ( 678 ) .
Another citation that helps to explain Thoreau? s Civil Disobedience is & # 8220 ; To be awake is to be alive. I have ne’er yet met a adult male who was rather awake. & # 8221 ; In this phrase, Thoreau uses the term & # 8220 ; wake up & # 8221 ; as an euphemism for being to the full cognizant of one? s construct of right and to the full in control of one? s moral and physical being. Intelligibly, people who are systematically awake, in this sense of the word, are difficult to happen: & # 8220 ; There are nine hundred and 99 frequenters of virtuousness to one virtuous adult male & # 8221 ; ( 680 ) . Besides, the fact that Thoreau has & # 8220 ; ne’er met a adult male who was rather awake & # 8221 ; implies that to the full witting persons have trouble bing in modern society. In fact, Thoreau believes that & # 8220 ; no adult male with a mastermind for statute law has appeared in America. They are rare in the history of the universe & # 8221 ; ( 692 ) . Possibly, by the word & # 8220 ; wake up, & # 8221 ; and its equation with & # 8220 ; alive, & # 8221 ; Thoreau is besides mentioning to the ability to carry through his ain mission: & # 8220 ; I came into this universe, non chiefly to do this a good topographic point to populate in, but to populate in it, be it good or bad & # 8221 ; ( 683 ) . Although this construct is non a peculiarly alone one, it is about impossible to carry through wholly? but to carry through it partly is useless. As a life being, one must & # 8220 ; project your whole ballot, non a strip of paper simply, but your whole influence & # 8221 ; ( 684 ) . To genuinely be alive, one must be consciously satisfied with every passing minute.
Through his painstaking support of every aspect of his doctrine, Thoreau efficaciously proves his statements sing citizenship and authorities. He remains consistent to about every thought he presents and hence surrounds them with a earnestness that can non be ignored.
Bibliography
Thoreau, Henry. & # 8220 ; Civil Disobedience. & # 8221 ; Elementss of Argument: A text and Reader. Ed. Annette T. Rottenberg. 6th erectile dysfunction. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin & # 8217 ; s, 2000. 463-466.
