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A Summary of "Civil Disobedience" by Henry David Thoreau Henry David Thoreau was born on July 12, 1817, in Concord, Massachusetts, USA. He lived in the same town for most of his short life until he died in 1862 (he was just 45 years old). Thoreau entered Harvard College when he was just sixteen years old. He graduated in 1837 and was immediately employed in Concord as schoolteacher.
A job he only held for two weeks after being dismissed for refusing to beat his students. He traveled to Maine but unable to find a job there, Thoreau returned to Concord and opened a school with his brother John. The Concord Academy only lasted for three years because John became sick and eventually died in his arms. One day before Johns death anniversary in 1845, Henry decided to move to the cabin that he has been building since that spring in Walden Pond. He spent most of his days there writing and contemplating about life.
Civil Disobedience, presented as a lecture in 1848 and published in 1849 under the title Resistance to Civil Government, " was written based on his one night jail experience in Concords jail. It was only in 1866, four years after Thoreau died, that the essay was published under the title "Civil Disobedience. " Civil Disobedience is an essay that advocates need for the citizenry to prioritize conscience over the dictates of laws and attempts to persuade readers to oppose unjust American social institutions and government policies in general and the Mexican War and the institution of slavery in particular. Thoreau calls for acts of united general and communal defiance, such as refusing to pay taxes to express the populace opposition against the government. It actually covers several topics that range from government and democracy, resistance to unjust civil government policies, politicians and the people all because of his one night experience in a prison cell. Thoreau intersperses poetry and social commentary throughout the essay making it literary as well as practical. The essay begins by arguing that government rarely proves itself useful to everyone and that the power it receives from the majority is not genuine and justifiable because being the strongest group does not entail legitimate viewpoint.
Thoreau contends that a persons chief obligation is to do what is believed to be right even if it goes contrary to the law dictated by the majority. Ones obligation is not to devote his life to eliminating evils from the world but not to participate in such evils. When a social / political institution is unjust, people should refuse to follow the law and distance themselves from that particular institution in general. Thoreau further espouses non-membership to such unjust institutions. He claims that according to his criteria for unjust government, the US government clearly fits into it given its support of slavery and its practice of aggressive war, particularly the Mexican War. He articulated his doubts on the effectiveness of governmental reforms since from his own experience, he argues that both voting and petitioning for changes accomplishes and achieves almost nothing.
His call fro action is for the citizenry to disassociate themselves from the government, wash their hands of it and refuse to participate in any of its unjust institutions. Thoreau believe that this kind of protest will inevitably be the appropriate and suitable actions rather than waiting for the results of reforms from within the government. His assertion is based on his conviction that one cannot see any institution, particularly the government for what it is when one is working within it. Work Cited Thoreau, Henry David. "Civil Disobedience" Action Poetry: Literary Tribes for the Internet Age. Levi Asher, , Jamelah Earle, and Caryn Thurman (eds). Bloomington, IN: Author house/Literary Kicks, 2004.
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Research essay sample on Henry David Thoreau Civil Disobedience
