Escapism In Civil Disobedience

A way of getting away from reality and to be fantasied, or other might refer to it as escapism, was one of the characteristics. Another one was individualism that promoted self-pride and seek the answer of why and what makes you so unique. Another one is looking to past mistakes and experiences to learn from them and become wiser. The last two relates the most to Henry Thoreau. One of this was persevering nature as a source of inspiration and the final one was to see the common men as people.

Henry David Thoreau was born in Concord Massachusetts, a small town that was located twenty miles apart from Boston. He was raised along with his siblings; John Thoreau, Helen Thoreau and Sophia Thoreau. In his teenage life he was a bright and hardworking student, eventually he attended to Harvard College. During his time in Harvard, Henry studied different languages such as Greek, Latin and German. At some

point of his studies Henry had a break from his studies due to some medical illness but at the end he graduated from Harvard College in 1837.
In this time period most of young people that have had graduated from well recognized Colleges, like Harvard College, were most likely to aspire careers such as medicine, law, church and education. He had a struggle deciding what he wanted to do with his life but eventually went in to education and stablished a school along with his brother, John Thoreau, in 1838.
After Henry’s college studies, he became friend with writer and fellow mate from Harvard College. Ralph W. Emerson exposed Henry to the Transcendentalism, which saw the importance of the practical thinking and spirituality of things rather than the physical assumption of the world. He also got to meet other characters related to this movement such as Bronson Alcott and Margaret Fuller.
Thoreau took advantage of this relationship to learn from Waldo. Waldo took Henry into his home and they both lived together so he could mentor him. Henry worked at his house mainly as a caretaker but Waldo’s effective mentoring lead to Henry’s first published work called the Dial, which was a transcendentalist magazine.
Later on Henry decided to live in a small pond home, located inside of Walden’s property, which he built himself. He lived there for around two years and set a new work policy of working one day and six days off, opposite of what people are used to; work six days and take one day off.
Emerson took a tour to England leaving Henry in charge of the house meanwhile and during this period of time Henry oath himself to learn about philosophy and art. His fascination for nature was still alive and at some point he wrote plant observations. He was so enthusiastic about nature that he would visits the woods of Maine and the shoreline of Cape Cod several times.
Henry did not only had a passion for the nature’s wilderness but had a strong morally character.

He was a very committed abolitionist until his death in May 6th in 1862. He saw slavery as a moral mistake and even called it a “Civil Disobedience”.

In the “Civil Disobedience”, an essay written in 1848 and published in 1849 by Henry Thoreau. Henry starts off by arguing about how even though there are laws, policies, regulations, American has not quite develop the sense of morally righteousness in its full extension. He relates this undeveloped circumstances to events like the Mexican-American war, or the fact that he are treating another race of human beings as tangible items; the Negro race being under slavery.

He also argues that it is not all right to give complete political power to a single group, the white race, even though they are the stronger group. The reason why he does not support this is because on his point of view people are meant not to follow laws if the laws are morally unfair and rather to follow that they think is right and stand up against

inequality.
He expresses that if people realize that what the ruling power puts out as law, or policy is morally unfair, the people have the right to refuse to follow in order for the government to change it. At some point he even expresses that American could fit perfectly in his ideal of governmental injustice.
He also wrote another essay that supported an abolitionist character called John Brown. John Brown was a mayor abolitionist figure, whose actions help leading to the start of the Civil War between the Confederate Army and the Union. In this essay Henry Thoreau does not only explains the events but also expresses his support to the character, the reasons of his actions, and the movement he was part of it.
In my opinion, the conclusion of the essay is that Henry Thoreau might be very well death, but he did not only left some literature works about Romanticism, or Transcendentalism, but left essays that expressed events that were significant at the time for America and specially for the Negro community.
Henry Thoreau also left a Legacy behind, a Legacy that is on people’s hearth; a legacy that did not only supported a movement, or a legacy that was the cause of a war between brothers within a countries borders. Henry Thoreau left a legacy of Moral righteousness, character, self-loyalty and bravery to stand up for what you think is right.
This Legacy did not only inspired people at the time but also gave hope to Americans, Negro communities and racial minorities to keep seeking a better equal government, and made such a great impact that his actions inspired people way after its life such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Rosa parks, and Malcom X, that are all well-known for their brave actions and great outcome towards what they tough was the right thing to do and was worth fighting for.