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Henry David Thoreau

            Henry David Thoreau was an American writer, philosopher, and naturalist. He was also a strong believer in individualism. Thoreau's best-known work is that of his book, Walden. In 1865, Thoreau decided to go to jail, rather than support the Mexican War by paying a poll tax. This resistance was later clarified in his essay, Civil Disobedience. .
             In Civil Disobedience Thoreau discussed his idea of passive resistance. He contends that people's first obligation is to do what they believe is right and not to follow the law given by the majority. When a government is unfair, people should refuse to follow the law and put themselves away from the government. He believed a person is not obligated to dedicate his life to eliminating evils from the world, but he is obligated not to participate in such evils. Thoreau further argued that the United States fits his criteria for an unjust government, given its support of slavery and its practice of aggressive war.
             Thoreau doubted the effectiveness of reform within the government, and he argued that voting and petitioning for change achieved little. He presented his own experiences as a model for how to relate to an unjust government. While in protest of slavery, Thoreau refused to pay taxes and spent a night in jail. He said that one cannot see government for what it is when one is working within it.
             In conclusion, Thoreau's essay was extremely powerful. He had a lot of positives that really made you think. He made you realize that you have a right to go against the government if you didn't believe it was doing the right thing. I admire Thoreau for standing up for what he believed in.
            


Essays Related to Henry David Thoreau

1. Henry David Thoreau

... , he is best known for writing Walden. He was also a great thinker and many times his ideas left him in the minority. Although many disagreed with him, Henry David Thoreau expressed his beliefs and ideas through his actions and words. He gave lectures on his views of slavery and openly supported the abolitionist John Brown. Also, in "Civil ... as fast as it ripened, would prepare the way for a still more perfect and glorious State, which I have also imagined, but not yet anywhere seen- (Thoreau 136, 137). Henry David Thoreau took a strong opposition to the Mexican War. He said the war wa...

  • Word Count: 2858
  • Approx Pages: 11
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

2. Thoreau - Civil Disobedience, Walden, and Walking

... a House Painter, a Carpenter, a Mason, a Day-Laborer, a Pencil-Maker, a Glass-paper Maker, a Writer, and sometimes a Poetaster (The Correspondence of Henry David Thoreau 186). His critics, his contemporaries then and now, casual readers or students of literature may classify Thoreau differently, among the champions of justice, individual rights, transcendentalist's, social reformers, and naturalists. Nevertheless, most notable is his place in history as ... (Petrulionis 15). It was at this time, he changed the order of his first and middle name and referred to himself as Henry David. In ...

  • Word Count: 2159
  • Approx Pages: 9
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3. Henry David Thoreau

Henry David Thoreau Henry David Thoreau was a man who expressed his beliefs of society, government, and mankind while living under his own self-criticism. He drew off his own life ... nature books, it is the same reason that many of today's younger generation think of him as a hero. Henry David Thoreau was born on the 12th of July 1817 in Concord, Massachusetts, eighteen miles northwest of Boston (Concise 349). "Though Thoreau was born in "the era of good feeling," his family experienced many misfortunes, politically, physically, and financially ... exams. Although he was admitted, it was ve...

  • Word Count: 2638
  • Approx Pages: 11
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

4. Henry David Thoreau

... , translations, and journals, he is best known for writing Walden. He was also a great thinker and many times his ideas left him in the minority. Although many disagreed with him, Henry David Thoreau expressed his beliefs and ideas through his actions and words. He gave lectures on his views of slavery and openly supported the abolitionist John Brown. Also, in "Civil Disobedience,"" one ... it to drop off as fast as it ripened, would prepare the way for a still more perfect and glorious State, which I have also imagined, but not yet anywhere seen- (Thoreau 136, 137). Henry David Thoreau ...

  • Word Count: 2294
  • Approx Pages: 9
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

5. Lewis and Thoreau

... visibly share a common concern for the functions of society, and it is evident that Sinclair Lewis, in his satirical voice, actually viewed the work of Thoreau with the utmost respect. Lewis's character of George Babbitt and Henry David Thoreau actually represent opposite extremes of an individual living in American society. Babbitt, in the pre-Depression 1920s, is conformity in every aspect. He cannot form ... different approaches both have pros and cons. Both ways do not work out as planned, but they answer the problems in an unexpected way. In Sinclair Lewis's Babbitt and in Henry Da...

  • Word Count: 3576
  • Approx Pages: 14
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6. Thoreau's Walden - Living and Being Alive

... through the motions, but someone who is truly alive is one who is genuinely seeing what is around him and experiencing every moment. Henry David Thoreau opened up his mind to living life to the fullest in order to gain personal happiness, while those around him focused more on working ... to realize that "a man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone" (Thoreau. 1023). Henry David Thoreau described life's true meaning to be reaching one's dreams and happiness through a simple life filled with small treasures. His Walden experiment ... and seek comp...

  • Word Count: 1066
  • Approx Pages: 4

7. Henry David Thoreau and "Walde

Henry David Thoreau and "Walden" Henry David Thoreau writes "Walden" with the intention of arousing emotion and making his fellow men and readers aware of themselves and the world that surrounds them. He ... doing whatever it is that makes you happy. In one statement Thoreau says "Most men appear never to have considered what a house is, and are actually though needlessly poor all their lives because they think that they must have such a one as their neighbors have." Henry David makes a point of laying before his readers several levels that he ... wants his readers to think about. These lev...

  • Word Count: 777
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Grade Level: High School

8. Franklin Vs. Thoreau

... their wise ideals, their beliefs were often contradictory of each others" ideas of how a person should live and work in society, while some were complementary of the other's ideas. Henry David Thoreau and Benjamin Franklin had many comparable beliefs. The men didn't follow the organized Christian religion of the time. Franklin believed in Deism; which humans believe that God created humans and ... in it's extreme. He lived life as a self-declared celibant. The men had many similarities, but they also had notable differences. Though influential thinkers, Henry David Thoreau and Benjamin F...

  • Word Count: 677
  • Approx Pages: 3
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9. Comparison of Emerson and Thoreau

... 1817. Emerson attended Harvard and then became a Unitarian minister just like his father had been. Thoreau also attended Harvard but upon graduating, became a teacher and opened up a school. Both Emerson and Thoreau dedicated their careers to pursue transcendentalist philosophy. In comparing Henry David Thoreau's Walden and Ralph Waldo Emerson's Nature, there are parallel beliefs concerning simplicity, material goods and ... glorified God as its divine being. This essay will compare the similar beliefs and ideas that these two transcendentalists brought forward that tried to shape a you...

  • Word Count: 1342
  • Approx Pages: 5
  • Grade Level: High School

10. Henry David Thoreau and Breaking Away from the World

... to maintain a biased opinion on the matter because much of what I have experienced in my time in the U.S. Army enforces what Henry David Thoreau wrote about nearly 200 years ago. I do understand that propaganda is an effective was to move the masses, but Thoreau saw it as a form of "social herding " if you will, or social mind control. As we have seen throughout our ... , the better it was for him and the community. (Walden) Thoreau was criticized and not respected for his writings like he is today which what I have seen with many artists. He had revolutionary and controversial ideas tha...

  • Word Count: 1218
  • Approx Pages: 5
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