Resumo de Civil Disobedience; ?letter From Birmington Jail? - Henry David Thoreau; Martin Luther King Jr.

Our government has encouraged the individual to raise his voice for the nation to hear, but many times when the individual stands up for his rights the government will not listen. Henry David Thoreau and Martin Luther King Jr. analyze the effectiveness of the United States government; they articulate the necessity of individuals to change the government. Thoreau?s Civil Disobedience and King?s ?Letter from Birmington Jail? demand that individual to stand up to injustice; furthermore, they set the example in their own lives by spending time in jail for standing up to the government. Thoreau parallels the government with a machine, and condemns those who bend to the government?s will if they do not agree with it; upon examining King?s writing one may easily conclude he agrees with Thoreau because he stresses the idea of an unsympathetic government and directs individuals to protest against it.

Thoreau expresses his idea of a cold machine through the thought of ?[letting] your life be a counter friction to stop the machine? (145). This stopping of the unfeeling machine lends the idea of a highly breakable machine. He calls the individual to standup and ?make known what kind of government would command his respect? (138). Since the government desires power and cares nothing for the people it breaks while acquiring it, he articulates the necessity of the American?s individual force. Without a balance of government and individual ideas America would not develop into a stable and growing nation. Reaching out and developing thoughts and ideas makes change, which creates inventions and new businesses.

King expounds upon the cold unfeeling government with the observation that ?[n]egroes have experienced grossly unjust treatment in the courts? (175). The same government of Thoreau exists one hundred forty-one years later: ?[u]nder a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also prison? (146). We are also reminded ?everything Adolf Hitler did in Germany was ?legal? and everything the Hungarian freedom fighter did in Hungary was ?illegal?? (180). This alone, I believe, should compel Americans to standup for what they think is right. The independence and courage that he calls for to rebel against the machine desires nothing more than the independence supposedly given to us by the government, of course, the government may be the first to stifle that American?s voice. One can see that King, like Thoreau, encourages the American to state his belief, no matter what the consequences.

Through the course of their writing Thoreau and King bind their desire for the individual to stand up to the machine because they realize that the government does not always think about Americans as individuals. Without the people taking a stand for what is right and moving into uncharted territory America would never have turned out like the country it stands as today, for ?[the government] does not keep the country free? (138) or ?educate? (138). The individuals who find the government made of cold uncaring metal must find the courage to ? be a counter friction to stop the machine? (145).

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