Transcendentalists were writers during the American Renaissance taking place during 1830 to 1865. These transcendentalist writers believe in the notion that our minds go deeper than they think. They constantly looked for the deeper meaning of life, usually isolating themselves from society. Often times they would in these deeper meanings by means of nature. Henry David Thoreau was one of the most famous transcendentalist writers, although he was somewhat tedious to be around, he ended up discovering the greatest meanings of life. Thoreau lived in the forest for years in order to further understand his life. One of Thoreau’s works was called “Resistance to Civil Government,” in which he explains why nonconformity is the best option. What Thoreau was suggesting is civil disobedience, and was used later on by several famous activists, including Martin Luther King Jr. MLK wrote a letter while serving time for participating in a civil rights demonstration, called “Letter from Birmingham City Jail.” MLK’s letter and Thoreau’s piece have certain similarities and differences, and both writings can be implemented by American citizens today. In “Resistance to Civil Government,” Thoreau believes that a government with too much power is inconvenient. This contrasts to King, because he believes that government can be good when its laws are just. Thoreau disagreed with the Mexican war, and resisted paying his taxes; this is an example of civil disobedience, something which MLK and many other civil rights activists have done. Thoreau says that government can be easily manipulated by whoever is in control, which makes it lose its integrity. King said something that reflects his views: so many states had prohibited black people from voting, which doesn’t represent a true democracy. What King is saying is that these leaders had made these laws that restricted the government from working how it was supposed to.
However, Thoreau says in his essay that whenever government gets in the way, it always messes things up. King would disagree, because again, he believes that only some laws are unjust, and he doesn’t completely agree with what Thoreau says. Thoreau says that a government where all rulings are based on what the majority wants is not a government of justice. King doesn’t necessarily have a problem with majority rule in the country, but he believes that laws can sometimes be unjust to the minorities of the country. When Thoreau was arrested, they didn’t treat him like an actual person; they didn’t seem to care about anyone’s feelings and just saw him as another criminal; after his night in jail, he lost all his respect for the government. King mentions how he got arrested, and they kept him on charges of parading without a permit during his civil rights demonstration. He and everyone else knew that the real reason he was arrested was to preserve segregation as well as deny him his constitutional right to protest, simply because they didn’t agree with him; King looked at this to be unjust, and does not like the direction the government was currently heading.
After Thoreau was out of jail, he saw where he lived more distinctly. He realized that he held different viewpoints than all the others, and he suddenly felt like he knew more truths about the world. He said that the viewpoints they held were very similar to that of the jailers. They were all worried about their reputation if they knew someone who had gotten into trouble. In King’s letter, he says that authority is anxious over people’s willingness to break the law. This relates to Thoreau’s statement because the authority of both of their times were so worried about other people. Thoreau doesn’t believe that becoming a democracy can be the best direction for the government, because even a democracy can have his flaws, and not fully represent each faction of citizens to the best extent. MLK had very negative views of democracy during his time because they were not honoring the right of African American citizens to have a say in what goes on in the country, so both Thoreau and King are saying the same thing. Thoreau says that the state will never be free until it recognizes the superior power of the individual; once they realize how individuals should be treated, the country will be in its best possible state. King would agree with this statement, because he believes in the power of the individual, especially those he was representing during the Civil Rights Movement. Both the letter of Martin Luther King Jr. and the writings of Thoreau can be implemented in today’s American society. Thoreau says that it does not matter how small a movement starts off as, because once it starts to happen, it won’t stop until it is achieved. This was true in the case of the Civil Rights Movement, because those who participated would not give up, and persevered through the whole thing. This doctrine that Thoreau came up with also can apply to the feminist movement; feminists have been fighting for all women’s rights since the early 1900s, and although they have come far and have gained a much bigger following than it started out with, they are still fighting for the equality of both genders.
127 our experts are availableright now
Both Thoreau and King believed that government is corrupt, and many people believe that in this day and age. Both also believed that the government did not represent true democracy because the voice of each individual was not heard fully; in modern times, people still would agree with this. Civil disobedience has also been used throughout the years, even before America was founded; some still openly use civil disobedience today by means of getting their voice heard. Both the ideals of Thoreau and Martin Luther King Jr. were relevant to their times, but still stay relevant in American life today. Thoreau and MLK were both ahead of their times, and they realized things that others did not. They both valued the emphasis on the individual, rather than government as a whole. They held very similar viewpoints despite being alive during very different time periods. Some would say that MLK holds very transcendentalist views in the sense that he believed in nonconformity from made their places as a couple of the most open-minded citizens in American history.
References
- Biography: Henry David Thoreau
- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Thoreau’s Moral Philosophy
- History: Martin Luther King Jr.
- Encyclopedia Britannica: Mexican-American War
- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Civil Disobedience
- Teaching American History: Frederick Douglass – What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?
- History: Civil Rights Movement
- The Thoreau Society
