Thoreau believed that the best possible government was
one that interfered with the lives of its people as little as possible
, and only when completely necessary.
What type of government does Thoreau want in civil disobedience?
In “Civil Disobedience” Thoreau not only calls for resistance to immoral and unjust government actions, he also criticizes the foundations of
representative democracy
— majority rule, voting, and representation.
What kind of government does Thoreau want?
How does Thoreau define the best possible kind of government? Thoreau envisions the best kind of government as on that does not govern. He supports
laissez-faire (free enterprise, free trade, noninterfering)
.
What are Thoreau’s beliefs?
Thoreau emphasized
self-reliance, individuality, and anti-materialism and sharply questioned
the basic assumptions of the way men lived. Transcendentalism proved to be the intellectual force that charged Thoreau’s imagination to write about the possibilities of an ideal existence for man.
Why does Thoreau compare the government to a machine?
Thoreau compares the government, or “state,” to a machine
to highlight how the government can cause individuals to ignore their own conscience and become complicit in immoral acts
. They become part of a machine that “produces” slavery and warfare.
What does Thoreau consider the most effective way of expressing his displeasure with the government?
Thoreau considers
civil disobedience
one of the most effective ways of expressing his displeasure with the government. Civil disobedience, as the name suggests, is the active disregard and breaking of a government rule when a private citizen believes it is unnecessary or even against society’s best interests.
What were his feelings about the government while he was in jail?
How did his imprisonment affect his feelings about the government?
He refused to pay his poll tax. In jail he lost respect for the state.
… People would live by their own rules without regard for the law, and no one person or group would have control.
Who bailed out Thoreau?
The poll tax was levied on all men over the age of twenty. Thoreau was finally jailed overnight for this refusal in 1841 but was bailed out by
his relatives
who paid his back taxes for him. From July 4, 1845, to September 6, 1847, Thoreau lived alone at Walden Pond, Massachusetts, on a plot of land owned by Emerson.
What did Thoreau fight for?
Thoreau held deeply felt political views,
opposing slavery and the Mexican-American War
. He made a strong case for acting on one’s individual conscience and not blindly following laws and government policy.
What makes Thoreau a transcendentalist?
The transcendentalists were heavily influenced by
the European Romantic movement and Eastern religious texts and rituals
. They also firmly believed in the power of intuition over logic, and were fierce advocates of independence and self-sufficiency. These are the foundational characteristics of transcendentalism.
What does Thoreau suggest is worse than disobeying an unjust law?
He disagreed with other American people who believed
the majority should change the law first
because it is a worse thing to disobey the law than to do what an unjust law says to do. Thoreau wrote that breaking the unjust laws is better: “Break the law. … However, Thoreau did not think people should be criminals.
Does Thoreau believe that a democracy is the last possible improvement in America’s government?
“Is
a democracy
, such as we know it, the last improvement possible in government? … “Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison.”
Why did Henry Thoreau write Civil Disobedience?
Thoreau wrote Civil Disobedience
to justify not paying his taxes, for which he was put in jail
. He refused to pay his taxes to protest two injustices he believed were perpetrated by the United States government: slavery and the war against Mexico.
What is Thoreau’s last thought about the state before he loses respect for it?
In “Civil Disobedience”, Thoreau
thinks the state can’t tell its friends from its enemies
. That is his last thought about the state before he loses respect for it.
What message does Thoreau convey through this example of the acorn and the chestnut?
What message does Thoreau convey through his example of the acorn and the chestnut?
When Thoreau says he did not enjoy being in prison, but he also felt what freedom felt like in prison
. The idea that this paradox illustrates is that a person’s imagination could make them feel free wherever they are.
What does Thoreau say about jail?
Thoreau maintains that “
Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison
.” This is true today in Massachusetts, he says: in prison, a person can live with honor among the victims of injustice.
