Reflection: Henry David Thoreau's Essay

Henry David Thoreau’s “Civil Disobedience” is one of the most influential works of literature with a strong focus on protest. Thoreau’s “Civil Disobedience” is about his protest against a poll tax. In, “Civil Disobedience,” Thoreau speaks of the poll tax placed on people rather than property often for the right to vote, that he refused to pay. In turn, he is arrested and spends some time in jail (Thoreau). He spends a lot of time talking about the injustice of charging someone for something that they are not a part of. This work revolves around a wrong or injustice that has been done by a large group that has an immense amount of power. Thoreau uses a very personal point of view, speaking primarily of his own actions and opinions of the occurrences that happened to him during his protest of the poll tax (Thoreau). This work highlights the idea of protest of the wrongs and injustices done by organizations like government that have arguable too much control.

Henry David Thoreau is talking about a poll tax that he does not want to pay. Henry David Thoreau had a good point with his protest. The poll tax is a little bit much; although I did know that the government needed money. The poll tax was okay and almost manageable for the wealthy citizens, but the poor people were kind of hung out to dry. There is no way that the less fortunate people of the country could afford any poll tax because they simply just did not have the money. Some people could barely keep themselves and their families living at the time because their money was not going as far as they needed it to go. So I believe Henry David Thoreau had justification in his refusal to pay the poll tax because some people could just simply not afford to pay it.

Henry David Thoreau writes his essay, Civil Disobedience, after he had refused to pay the tax and he talked about what had happened to him when he was in jail and what happened before that and after jail. Henry Davis Thoreau is just writing for a general population, no one in particular.

The two major issues being debated in the United States during Thoreau's life were slavery and the Mexican-American War. Both issues play a prominent part in Thoreau's essay. “By the late 1840s, slavery had driven a wedge in American society, with a growing number of Northerners expressing anti-slavery sentiments. In the 1850s, the country became even more polarized, and the introduction of slavery-friendly laws such as the Fugitive Slave Law, prompted many abolitionists to protest the government's actions via various forms of civil disobedience. (Civil Disobedience) ” These issues may have also made Thoreau a little bit irritable because they were big conflicts.

I believe that Thoreau does show elements of Transcendentalism in his work. The literature of this time was known to have had a distinct focus on nature, philosophy, emotion, intuition, and psyche (Barney and Paddock). These are demonstrated through many works of American writers, especially ones of the subgenres known as Transcendentalism or Dark Romanticism (Barney).

Works Cited

"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.

"Civil Disobedience: Context." SparkNotes: Today's Most Popular Study Guides. Web. 26 Jan. 2012.