... Punishment: Getting Off "The Hook" Repercussions for one's own actions are a common theme throughout literature. Adverse reaction as a result of action takes place in Plato's Five Dialogues, Henry David Thoreau's Walden and Civil Disobedience, Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle, and The Marquis De Sade's Justine. Numerous philosophers have advocated that the future of the human race does not lie in outside of mankind's grasp ... "truth" and an advocate of an individual's responsibility to democracy regardless of a possible societal backlash. Thoreau's affirmation of the validity of individual...

• Word Count: 2901
• Approx Pages: 12
• Grade Level: Undergraduate