Civil Disobedience Rhetorical Analysis

Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau were two of many transcendental authors from the 1800’s, firmly believing in finding self-definition through experiences than through societal views. In Emerson's, “Self-Reliance,” and Thoreau's “Civil Disobedience,” the need to enjoin the audience to action is evident throughout each piece by using specific literary techniques to help convey their message. Through the use of specific sentence structure, diction, and figurative language, Emerson and Thoreau enjoin their readers in understanding that conformity halts growth and progress as an individual as well as understanding the notion of challenging the government for the greater good of oneself and society as a whole.
Throughout each excerpt, the use of syntax from each author helps the enjoining of the reader as it creates a tone that affects the reader's interpretation of the message within each text. In “Self- Reliance”, Emerson uses long

sentences with an extensive amount of commas to enable a more emotional approach to the gist to the reader. Examples like the first sentence of the excerpt,“ There is a time in every man’s education… through his toil bestowed the ground which is given to him,” helps the author convey his message because it talks how the amount of effort put into a task affects its outcome in regards to being an independent individual. If the author had not said this in one entire sentence the interpretation could have altered, therefore not effectively enjoining the reader to action. In “Civil Disobedience”, Thoreau uses short, sharp sentence to create a more serious and straight to the point tone so that the reader finds truths in the statements, enabling an agreement between reader and author. Thoreau states, “It does not keep the country free. It does not settle in the west. It does not educate.” This use of asyndetons allows the readers to understand what people have done without the government, almost encouraging the reader to find more reasons to rebel and question the government. The structure of both passages show the passionate and desperate emotions the authors have towards expanding their message to their readers.
The use of specific diction from each author affects the reader's response to the conveyed message in each piece.

In Emerson's “Self -Reliance”, Religious diction is used to appeal to the background of the reader, further greatening the value of his message. Using words like “God”, “divine,” and “immortal” demonstrated how Emerson wanted to convey how God gave power to the people, but only to be themselves. Much like Emerson, Thoreau “Civil Disobedience” uses diction to show the purpose of the passage. His use of Political diction helps portray his demand to look through the laws in the government and focus on how, as a nation, people are the “government”. By using words like “government,” “army,” and “citizen Thoreau wants to show how the government should have better representation for its people so that the nation could function as a whole rather than divided groups for a safer and fair way of life. The authors utilize these different types of diction to attempt to portray the purpose of each text through the

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In addition, the use of allusions and repetition further help to call the attention of the reader by relating and embedding the gist in the reader's mind as they go through the text.
In “Self- Reliance”, Emerson uses allusions like “Jesus and Luther” and “Galileo, and Newton” because he wanted his reader to understand how he perceives his message. In other words, he picked these specific people because they stood by their convictions despite what their environment was evoking to its habitats. Jesus and Luther had to go through immensely difficult obstacles to attempt to get their messages across, any person in their time could have done something similar but could have given up by the fourth conflict, however, neither Jesus nor Luther stopped until their message was the talk of their times, which is what Emerson wants the readers to understand. He uses these figures as models of what he thinks society should look like: individuals with their own convictions immune to the effect of a close-minded society. On the other hand, Thoreau uses a different approach to get the readers to think about the passage long after they finished reading it. “Civil Disobedience” features the word “government so many times it is hard to forget what the piece is about. This use of repetition enables the enjoining of the audience as it ingrains the message of standing up against the government into the reader's thoughts.