The Night Thoreau Spent In Jail Essay
Ralph Waldo Emerson, a renowned transcendentalist, shared many universal truths during the period of Transcendentalism, which further advocated the ideals of the period. This maxim in particular expresses that your own identity and perspective of the world is what is most important in the end.
Emerson states that nothing is as important as you, regarding the path you choose and the ideals you create for yourself. In other words, Emerson encourages people to not succumb to society's expectations of who a person should be, but instead live a lifestyle you desire to live. This maxim particularly expresses the theme of individuality and enforces society to be their own. During
Emerson's lifetime, he had been a strong advocate of the abolitionist
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In the play, "The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail," by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee, Henry
David Thoreau, the protagonist of the play, is shown to advocate self-awareness and making your own decisions based on your own beliefs. As expressed in the maxim, the ideals of transcendentalism and individuality, regardless of society's expectations, is evidently shown in the text.
In the play, Henry David Thoreau is thrown in jail for one night because he refuses to pay taxes that support the Mexican-American War. Although it was considered an American duty to pay taxes to support the country's decisions, Thoreau did not believe that the Mexican-American War was the right direction towards prosperity, so he risked the consequence of prison rather than succumb to the directions given to him which would falsify his own ideals. Emerson's maxim is shown in the plot of the play as a whole. Emerson's maxim expresses going against societal norms and going your own path, and Henry did exactly that when he refused to pay taxes unlike any other American citizen. Other
The Night Thoreau Spent In Jail
209 Words | 1 PagesWhen comparing Civil Disobedience and The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail, it is clear that Thoreau’s ideas and thoughts were revolutionary at the time in which he lived. Both Civil Disobedience and The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail are clear compositions of his views, however, The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail more effectively connects people to his ideas. Both Civil Disobedience and The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail assert Thoreau’s views on the freeing aspects of jail as well as his thoughts on the rest of America. While in Civil Disobedience Thoreau discusses the “wall of stone between [him] and [his] townsmen” and the even “more difficult [wall the townsmen must] to climb or break through, before they could get to be as free as [he] was”(Thoreau
Comparing Night Thoreau Spent In Jail And A Time For Choosing
690 Words | 3 PagesThe 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.
Ethos In The Works Of Thoreau And The King
486 Words | 2 PagesThoreau starts his essay by condemning his fellow countrymen’s actions, or rather, inaction. They and Thoreau share similar moral beliefs, but they refuse to take any action towards them. “Must the citizen ever for a moment, or
Rhetorical Analysis Of Civil Disobedience
757 Words | 4 PagesHenry David Thoreau: Urging the independent mind In “Civil Disobedience” by Henry David Thoreau, his goal is to urge people to resist (in a non-violent manner) governmental policies with which they disagree. His essay radiated throughout that time, influencing people to change the way that they had first perceived government laws and ideas. This dissertation helped people to change perspective and to challenge what the government was making them do. Today we can use this same logic to question government officials, to know for ourselves what is best.
Transcendentalism In 'Civil Disobedience, And Dead Poets Society'
851 Words | 4 PagesHe also describes society and how the problems that occurred decades ago still occur now. He says it best in this quote from “Self-Reliance”, “Society is a wave. The wave moves onward, but the water of which it is composed does not.” (Emerson). This quote describes how societies thoughts and emotions have stayed the same although many years have passed.
Research Paper On Henry David Thoreau
687 Words | 3 PagesThis evidence helped me see that thoreau is very nice to help get rid of unjust laws. Henry david thoreau said that he has not paid one of the taxes for six years,so he was put in jail. He didn't pay for the taxes because the more he paid the more people would do slavery the system was you pay so people can use other’s as slaves.this evidence shows me that thoreau is a very kind and helpfulOnce Henry david thoreau said”i have always paid the highway and school taxes because i am a good neighbor, and i support school’s that educate my fellow countrymen.he thinks that he is a good neighbor because he pays highway and school taxes,and because he doesn't break “all” of the laws. This evidence shows that He is a person who is encouraged for what’s
Rhetorical Analysis Of Ralph Waldo Emerson's Self-Reliance
562 Words | 3 PagesOne instance of Emerson’s parallelism is the first sentence of his second paragraph: “There is a time in every man’s education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given him to till” (Emerson 2). The various clauses in the sentence have the same rhythm, thus creating parallelism. Using the parallelism to give his writing rhythm and flow, Emerson creates a scholarly, academic feel in this piece. Similarly, Emerson uses many compound and complex sentence structures throughout the piece, such as “Not for nothing one face, one character, one fact makes much impression on him, and another none” (Emerson 2). He uses this advanced syntax in order to give his sentences an air of sophistication, making him sound educated and intelligent.
Henry David Thoreau's Against The Government
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931 Words | 4 PagesIn Emerson's views, people should “not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail”(citation). Based on Emerson’s thoughts, people should not follow the crowd, but instead live their lives and leave their mark on the Earth. Emerson thoughts come from a philosophical movement of the nineteenth century called transcendentalism. Transcendentalism focuses on religious renewal, literary innovation, and social transformation (encyclopedia.com). Because of their belief that God exists in everyone and nature, and that knowledge comes from individual intuition, led to the highlight of individualism, self-reliance, and breaking free from traditions(citation).
Figurative Language In Emerson's Self Reliance
1332 Words | 6 PagesThe theme of the essay “Self Reliance” written by Emerson is for beings to not focus on those of others or subside his/her values to fit in with our society, for true geniuses comes from within and are made with their own heart and mind. His idea of self-reliance differs from that of the norm in that he doesn’t encourage those to mix into selfish ways but to be open and proud of their own individuality for that is the true key to life itself. Emerson’s idea is similar to the common use in that he encourages those to not depend on others to define his/her identity. 2. Emerson’s use of figurative language encourages his readers to view his ideas in a clearer and more emphasized perspective.
Analysis Of Henry David Thoreau's Resistance To Civil Government
2124 Words | 9 PagesThoreau 's views on the government by comparing the government to a machine. He states, ”When the machine was producing injustice, it was the duty of conscientious citizens to be ‘a counter friction’ (i.e., a resistance) "to stop the machine.” The two major issues being debated in the United States during his life was slavery and the Mexican-American War in which were major reasons he wrote his essays. In the mid to late 1840’s slavery has been indoctrinated into American society in which caused rifts between Americans.
Similarities Between Emerson And Henry David Thoreau
96 Words | 1 PagesRalph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau were writers and transcendentalist principal figures. They believed people should focus on their individual judgment rather than social traditions. Emerson was a philosopher and he thought people should discover and believe on their own “definition of freedom” (Foner330). This was a process of one realizing their own definition of freedom and to incorporate it to their lives. Thoreau believed Americans were consuming their lives with building up wealth caused by the market revolution.
Self-Reliance And Thoreau's Prison Comparison
1365 Words | 6 PagesThoreau explains that the state and societies prison “never intentionally confronts a man’s sense, intellectual or moral, but only his body, his senses. It is not armed with superior wit or honesty, but with superior physical strength” and furthermore that he “was not born to be forced. I will breathe after my own fashion” (1990). Therefore, Resistance to Civil Government is validating that prison is confinement and conformity, however, Thoreau will not be conforming to any such conformist state and neither should the reader. Thoreau finally reinforces that he is “not responsible for the successful working of the machinery of society” and that “if a plant cannot live according to its nature, it dies; and so man” (1990), Thoreau is explicating that society needs to be responsible for its self and become self-reliant, just as an individual should be, because it is the nature of the world and society and if it cannot live as such then it will not continue
Comparing Emerson And Henry David Thoreau
1159 Words | 5 PagesTranscendentalist writers were focused on the belief of the divinity of the individual soul, the inner voice, (Crawford, Kern & Needleman, 1961) to overcome social stereotypes and to avoid conformity. It is highlighted the importance to return to nature to enhance the quality of humans beings by living simply since being apart of common social rules is the only way to be in communion with nature’s wisdom. Those transcendental characteristics could be seen in Emerson’s ¨self-reliance¨ or Thoreau’s ¨Walden ¨ bearing in mind that although, Emerson’s ¨Self-reliance¨ adheres more descriptive examples to illustrate metaphors and Thoreau’s ¨Where I lived and what I lived for¨ introduces metaphors creating much more imagery, both make a critique of the modern individual using
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