Reflection: Civil Disobedience

"Civil Disobedience" sets the tuning point for Transcendentalist works to come. "Transcendentalism is a variant of Romanticism which also exults in human intuition and creativity that goes beyond mere observation of the world"(Barney). Written by Henry David Thoreau, "Civil Disobedience" is the corner stone for Transcendentalism."Transcendentalists adopted neither religious faith nor radical skepticism but instead explored the spiritual and immaterial aspects of humanity through engagement of the imagination and contact with nature...espouses a belief in a kind of god or a divine principle inherent in humans that binds them to the natural world"(Barney). The central idea is that Transcendentalism tends focus on connecting with nature and not the religion and politics that surrounds them.

 In civil disobedience, Thoreau discusses a poll tax that he very clearly does not want to, nor has any intentions of paying.  A poll tax is just about the most ridiculous thing. Though this poll tax would be considered better for the wealthy and well endowed people and it very well could raise money for the government, what do the lower class citizens do? There is no way that the less fortunate people of the country could afford any poll tax because there is no way that they could have aquired the money for it, much less anything else life food and shelter.  Henry David Thoreau was on the right track when putting his foot down and deciding not to pay the poll tax.  It was most certainly unfair to the less fortunate of the world. The reader then begins to learn about what had happened to him when he was in Jail and the detail leading to and from it.Thoreau is not just writing this big long essay that could be considered as a novel length document, just for one single person.  He is writing this for everyone.  He is writing this for the general population which is probably why is his words were so effective because just about anybody could pick it up and become attached. "The practical reason why, when the power is once in the hands of the people, a majority are permitted, and for a long period continue, to rule, is not because they are most likely to be in the right, nor because this seems fairest to the minority, but because they are physically the strongest" (Thoreau).

"American Transcendentalists were greatly influenced by eastern thought, particularly Confucianism and Buddhism, which also emphasize the human need to go beyond the evidence of the senses"(Barney). This can be seen in Henry David Thoreau's work, and even in particular, "Civil Disobedience".  Thoreau sort of creates this idea that the human soul should greater be doing the right thing moreover just following the laws and doing what enforcement tells you is the right thing to do. Sometimes, things, no matter how wrong they may seem, are truly the right things to do.  Thoreau had a great imagination and way with words that he could adequately express that.  Christopher McCandless expanded on a quote of his, and I follow it every day of my life. 

"Rather than love, than money, than faith, than fame, than fairness... give me truth."

"Thoreau's Civil Disobedience - 1." The Thoreau Reader. Web. 25 Jan. 2012.

Barney, Brett, and Lisa Paddock, eds. "Transcendentalism." Encyclopedia of American Literature: The Age of Romanticism and Realism, 1816–1895, vol. 2, Revised Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2008. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc.