Civil Disobedience Rhetorical Analysis Essay

Speaker: The speaker of “Civil Disobedience” is Henry David Thoreau, who was one of the most influential transcendentalists of his time. Thoreau was a inverate abolitionist, as well as a naturalist, which is evident in one of his most widely recognized works Walden. Thoreau believed that all men should be equal, notice I said men, and that we need to go back to our naturalistic roots/ characteristics. Even though he lived in a time we now consider as generally simplistic we also need to take into account that he also was living through the time of mass industrialization.

Occasion: “Civil Disobedience” was originally part of a series of lectures that Thoreau gave at the Concord Lyceum in 1848.The lyceum movement was multiple organizations sponsoring communal programs, which thrived before and after the Civil War. Lyceums were mostly used to enhance society’s social, intellectual, and moral conduct. Lyceums were basically superannuated versions of TED Talks™. In 1849 it was officially published under the name of Resistance to Civil Government by Æsthetic Papers.

Audience: The

“Is a democracy, such as we know it, the last improvement possible in government? Is it not possible to take a step further towards recognizing and organizing the rights of man? There will never be a really free and enlightened State until the State comes to recognize the individual as a higher and independent power, from which all its own power and authority are derived, and treats him accordingly.” To answer his question democracy is not the last improvement possible as we have witnessed over the years, also we do need to realize why those who are in a power/ higher authority that us get the final decision and we also need to realize that we give them this power to oppress and undermine us so that they are the all