By acting civil but disobedient you are able to protest things you don't
think are fair, non-violently. Henry David Thoreau is one of the most important
literary figures of the nineteenth century. Thoreau?s essay 'Civil Disobedience,'
which was written as a speech, has been used by many great thinkers such as
Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Ghandi as a map to fight against injustice.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a pastor that headed the Civil Rights movement.
He was a gifted speaker and a powerful writer whose philosophy was non-violent
but direct action. Dr.King?s strategy was to have sit-ins, boycotts, and marches.
Dr. King's 'Letter from Birmingham Jail' was based on the principles of
Thoreau's 'Civil Disobedience'. Both Martin Luther King Jr. and Henry David
Thoreau are exceptional persuasive writers. Even though both writers are writing
on ways to be civil but disobedient, they have opposite ways of convicing you. Dr.
King is religious, gentle and apologetic, focusing on whats good for the group;
while Thoreau is very aggressive and assertive for his own personal hate against
the government.
Both Martin Luther King Jr. and Henry David Thoreau have the same
ideas, but view them differently. Dr. King wants to ultimately raise awareness and
open doors for the better of a group. Thoreau wants more individual rights for
people. Dr. King is explaining his view of conscience:
I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is
unjust, and willingly accepts the penalty by staying in jail to arouse the
conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the
very highest respect for the law (Martin Luther King, p. 521).
This quote shows Dr. King?s opinion on going to jail. King knows that he was
unjustly put into jail. He accepts going to jail even though he was put in jail
wrongly. The community then knows of the injustice and should pressure the
government. The other thing that happens is King is respecting the law by obeying
it. He is a peaceful man and wants justice, but believes in following the rules
peacefully to get the job done. Thoreau feels that conscience plays a more
personal role.
Can there not be a government in which majorities do not virtually decide
right and wrong, but conscience?... Must the citizen ever for a moment, or
in the least degree, resign his conscience to the legislator? Why has every
man a conscience, then. I think that we should be men first, and subject
afterward (Henry David Thoreau, p.581).
Thoreau is questioning why majorities make the rules.
When you look at today’s government, it is viewed that everyone will be treated equally and decisions will be made in the best interest of the people. But when thinking about the government of the past, one must ask if these same views were expressed by the people of that time? Did everyone fill that they were apart of a just system? According to Frederick Douglass and Henry David Thoreau the answer to that question is no. The government was unjust because so many followed the wrong doings of the law rather than doing what was right, subjected African Americans to harsher punishments
Fahrenheit 451 was written by Ray Bradbury in response to the threat of censorship and book burning in America. It is a dystopian novel concerning the effects that media can have on society. In this case, media has completely taken over. Books are outlawed and burned. Anyone caught with one is considered a criminal. In the novel, Guy Montag, the protagonist, is a fireman whose job is to burn books. His boss is Captain Beatty. After meeting (almost) 17 year old Clarisse McClellan and one particular incident where the book owner decides to die in the fire with her library of books than live without them, Montag begins to question what makes the books so valuable. He turns to Faber, a former English professor, for guidance. All three men, though different in many ways, possess similar traits. These help define their characters while also showing their part in the plotline.
While much of the society believes the censorship is what provides for a successful society, Montag is one of a few that believe the opposite. This theme is expressed literally in that way, but there is deeper meaning to Bradbury’s discussion of government involvement in censorship. Fahrenheit 451 was first written in 1951, a time when television was becoming a viral piece of mass communication. As a writer, Bradbury had to make a choice that in his eyes, allowed readers to be captivated by a literal story but be able to read between the lines as if reading through eyes that aren’t their own (Foster 226). Bradbury chose to use the main and dynamic character to be the one who is realizing the true nature of what censorship is doing to the society to open the eyes of Americans. Everything that happens in the novel is a metaphor alerting readers of the future Bradbury is worried
Thoreau and Socrates start Civil Disobedience and Crito with basically the same premise. They both believe that humans are essentially moral beings. Thoreau says that people if left to their own ends will act justly, and should be treated accordingly by the law. Socrates says essentially the same thing, he says that "no one wants to commit injustice" for its own sake, many people end up doing so anyway. Socrates says that the citizens of a government have entered into an agreement to abide by its laws in exchange for protection. He also says that if one believes these laws to be unjust, one can always leave, but if one agrees to abide by the laws they have a duty to be subjected to punishment if they break these laws. Thoreau on the other hand says that it is the duty of the people not to abide by a law if they perceive it to be unjust, and if they claim to be opposed to it and nevertheless abide by it, they are a hypocrite.
Thoreau and MLK use many similar strategies in their writings. One uses these strategies to make their piece more effective, in my observations of the two writing I come to realize MLK's persuasive letter, Letter from Birmingham Jail was far more effective than Thoreau’s Lecture On the Duty of Civil Disobedience, and here is why. MLK’s article was more effective because he strives towards tugging on the audience's heartstrings rather than the logical side, his repetition was used more effective, and he refers back to his audience. Also, because MLK stayed more on topic and was more passionate about his piece, made his writing a more effective disquisition.
In his famous essay, “Letter from Birmingham Jail,’’ Martin Luther King, Jr. cites conscience as a guide to obeying just laws and defying unjust laws. In the same way, Henry David Thoreau wrote in his famous essay, “Civil Disobedience,” that people should do what their conscience tells them and not obey unjust laws. The positions of the two writers are very close; they use a common theme of conscience, and they use a similar rhetorical appeal of ethos.
Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X were very significant during the Civil Rights Movement. Both were excellent speakers and shared one goal but had two different ways of resolving it. Martin Luther King Jr. chose to resolve the issues by using non-violence to create equality amongst all races to accomplish the goal. Malcolm X also wanted to decrease discrimination and get of segregation but by using another tactic to successfully accomplish the similar goal. The backgrounds of both men were one of the main driven forces behind the ways they executed their plans to rise above the various mistreatments. Martin Luther King Jr. was a more pronounced orator, a more refined leader, and overall saw the larger picture than Malcolm X.
Different from female and male which can describe animals, femininity and masculinity are personal and human. That is femininity refers to qualities and behaviors associated with women and girls and masculinity is manly character, it specifically describes men. Femininity has traditionally included features such as gentleness, patience and kindness. On the contrary, men?s chief qualities are strength, courage and violence.
Martin Luther King Jr. and John F. Kennedy were two very commendable men. They were two very different men that I feel had the same incredible amount passion for human beings. Both Dr. King and President Kennedy had such high hopes for this country and regardless of the sad and devastating time era, they both spoke with much poise and compassion. I truly believe they are exactly what this country needed and still needs to this very day.
know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my
The definition of a leader is a person who influences people to a common purpose. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr are examples of great leaders who brought about social change through alternative means in the 20th century. Their means were through nonviolent protests of freedom. Gandhi fought for freedom from Great Britain, and King fought for freedom from segregation and equal rights for all Americans.
All around the world society has created an ideological perspective for the basis of gender roles. Gender and sex are often times misused and believed to be interchangeable. This is not the case. There are two broad generalization of sexes; female and male, yet there is a vast number of gender roles that each sex should more or less abide by. The routinely cycle of socially acceptable behaviors and practices is what forms the framework of femininity and masculinity. The assigned sex categories given at birth have little to do with the roles that a person takes on. Biological differences within females and males should not be used to construe stereotypes or discriminate within different groups. Social variables such as playing with dolls or
Two of the most influential Civil Rights activists were Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. Both men were fighting for racial equality. However, some of their tactics were controversial. Both Dr. King and Malcolm X died for their causes, fighting for justice up until their last breath. Some of their methods were successful and some were not. In brief, both Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X used varying tactics to get their cry for racial equality heard.
Freud believed that humans develop through stages based on particular erogenous zones. Freud theorized that to gain a healthy personality as an adult, a person would have to successfully complete a certain sequence of five stages. Within the five stages of Freud’s psychosexual development theory, Freud assumed there would be major consequences if any stage was not completed successfully. The stages, in order, were the oral stage, the anal stage, the phallic stage, the latency stage, and the genital stage. In general, Freud believed that an unsuccessful completion of any stage would make a person become fixated on that particular stage. The outcome would lead the person to either over indulge or under indulge the failed stage during adulthood. Freud truly believed that the outcomes of the psychosexual stages played a major part in the development of the human personality. Eventually, these outcomes would become different driving forces in every human being’s personality. The driving forces would determine how a person would interact with the world around them. The results from Freud’s theory about the stages of psychosexual development led Freud to create the concept of the human psyche; Freud’s biggest contribution to
I also cannot tell you what the requirements of masculinity and femininity are, but I can for male and female. While there are certain traits that I may consider to be more feminine or more masculine, but they are not actual requirements of either concept. A car must have doors, but something or someone does not have to have strength or body hair to be