october 12, 2010

In the day prior to this class period, we had been assigned to read, analyze, and answer the questions of the document, "From Resistance to Civil Government" by Henry David Thoreau. Today, we discussed what the main theme was, and went over questions we faced while reading the document. The main idea we settled on was a collaboration of the class thoughts. We decided that the document really was emphasizing the point that when individuals come together in a government, there is some sort of a corrupt force and it is very important for every individual to focus on their own paths. We also said that according to Thoreau, there is no true government unless the individual is thoroughly respected. While trying to go deeper into this idea of a group of people coming together and once together, losing morals, we branched off into an idea from the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. What we used from that novel was the idea of, mob mentality. Mob mentality is best explained as when a people come together as a group, they lose individual morality, and conform to the morality of the group. This is how Thoreau describes the government, while his message is that our true righteousness is in our individual selves despite the beliefs of the group.

My thoughts on our this document start with thinking back to what I knew about Henry David Thoreau. In previous classes, we had established that he was a Transcendentalist. Knowing that Thoreau was a Transcendentalist, I also knew that the tree things his life really revolved around was God, nature, and this idea of individual self. Knowing this really helps because I can now grasp that Thoreau, through out this document, isn't always commenting literally, but figuratively. From within his jail cell, Thoreau says, "I saw that, if there was a wall of stone between me and my townsmen, there was still a more difficult one to climb or break through, before they could be as free as I was". Thoreau is not saying that he is more free then those men under the law, but in essence of life. I understood that Thoreau meant that even though he is trapped in jail, he is more free because he has broken out of the group of alikeness, he has achieved enlightenment. I also started thinking about how this discussion really brought us back around to the beginning of the year when we were talking about Will McLean, and Lennie and George, and how they were all against society. I thought it was interesting how we went back to that drawing which was so familiar from our first unit, of the lone large stick figure faced by a series of smaller stick figures compiled into a large mass on the other side. I think it is really important to take note that the one person standing alone is very large. Seeing this really supports Thoreau's claims of of the strength of an individual, he says, "...for a single man can bend it [government] to his will".