Civil Disobedience Rhetorical Analysis Essay

In life, sometimes disagreements arise, yet we keep our opinions inward, we stay quiet about the issue. Other times, we fight back against the disagreements, and refuse to cave to the oppositions opinion. This is considered an act of disobedience. When displayed in a child’s character, it is usually considered normal. As an adult, however, when we speak up about our opinion and ask others to join us in common grounds, the act is viewed as civil disobedience. In his writings on civil disobedience, Henry David Thoreau tries to persuade his readers to change their views of the government by using ethos, pathos and logos. His works proved to be effective, and now, people have second thoughts about their government.

First, Henry uses pathos to

But when it came down to the important details, such as abolishing slavery, the government would give them some freedom, but then push them right back into place, then give them a little slack again, thus to exercise their power and give them a false sense of freedom and therefore gain their trust. Henry states: “There is but little virtue in the action of masses of men. When the majority shall at length vote for the abolition of slavery, it will be because they are indifferent to slavery, or because there is but little slavery left to be abolished by their vote. They will then be the only slaves. Only his vote can hasten the abolition of slavery who asserts his own freedom by his vote” (Henry). In this, he addresses how the government can lash out if they don’t get what they want when they want it. In their approach to getting what they want, they limit the minorities freedoms subtly, as to keep some trust, but still get what they want out of them. He explains why we took away the rights of the black population; just to gain the upper hand over them, and take away their freedom to have a say in matters relevant to them: the power to change the government and eradicate slavery. Since the government didn’t get what they wanted, they abused their power by taking away the rights and freedom of innocent African Americans, and took control of them. Henry effectively