19th century american literature

19th century american literature

Using the following quotation from
“Civil Disobedience” as your basis, write a 650-word essay that discusses Thoreau’s philosophy of individual resistance:

“If the injustice is part of the necessary friction of the machine of government, let it go, let it go: perchance it will wear smooth- certainly the machine will wear
Out. If the injustice has a spring, or a pulley, or a rope, or a crank, exclusively for itself, then perhaps you may consider whether the remedy will not be worse than
The evil; but if it is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then I say, break the law. Let your life be a counter -­friction to stop the machine. What I have to do is to see, at any rate, that I do not lend myself to the wrong which I condemn” (134).