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LITR 4232: American Renaissance  |
Final Exam Essays 2013 Sample answers for Mid-length essay on 1 or 2 terms or subjects: Civil Disobedience / Passive Resistance |
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Kayla Davis
Civil
Disobedience: Romanticism in Action
Romanticism in America began in 1820 and
coincided with a period of national expansion and the discovery of a distinctive
American voice. The solidification of a national identity and the surging
idealism and passion of Romanticism nurtured the masterpieces of the American
Renaissance. The Romantics of America underscored the importance of expressive
art for the individual without the constraints of society and gave rise to the
notions of civil disobedience in the face of injustice. American
Transcendentalist, Henry David Thoreau, highlighted the importance of many
different Romantic aspects in his essay, “Resistance to Civil Government”.
Thoreau infused the concepts of Transcendentalism and Romanticism to provoke
emotion over reason and individualism within politics and the government and
argued that when the government went against “higher laws”, civil disobedience,
or passive, nonviolent action was necessary.
Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle
Tom’s Cabin also develops an argument that adherence to higher law may
require civil disobedience. Thoreau’s “Resistance to Civil Government” and
Stow’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin both use
Romantic principles to advocate civil disobedience to challenge unjust laws.
Thoreau wrote his essay “Resistance to Civil
Government” during a period when America was involved in two moral debacles:
slavery and the Mexican-American War. Thoreau,
who opposed both slavery and the war, would use his essay to vigorously campaign
for civil liberties and the abolishment of slavery. “Resistance to Civil
Government,” uses the Romantic ideas of individualism and passion over apathy to
argue the need for civil disobedience in opposition to the adversities of
slavery and unjust wars. Thoreau expresses individualism by emphasizing the
importance of the individual’s conscience and ask, “Must the citizen ever for a
moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience to the legislator? Why has
every man a conscience then? I think that we should be men first, and subjects
afterward” (5). Thoreau’s words exemplify the ideas of individualism, which he
uses to question slavery and states, “I cannot for an instant recognize that
political organization as my government which is the slaves government also”
(8). Should a person obey a law that is unjust and goes against their
conscience? Thoreau argued that when a government acts against the individual
and their conscience, the individual should resist such governments. This idea
of civil disobedience is embodied in Stowe’s
Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
During the time Stowe wrote
Uncle Tom’s Cabin, the Fugitive Laws
were being passed compelling northern law enforcement to capture and return
runaway slaves. Stowe felt that these laws went against the higher laws of
Christianity and evangelical principles. To protest the cruelties of slavery and
denounce the Fugitive Laws, Stowe uses her novel
Uncle Tom’s Cabin and the plight of
her character. Stowe also uses her characters to represent the need for civil
disobedience. The idea that individual’s commitment to a higher law may require
civil disobedience parallels the argument for civil disobedience that Stowe
offers in her narrative of Eliza's escape, especially in scenes set in Senator
Bird's home and in the Quaker settlement. Mrs. Bird argues against the Fugitive
laws and if states that if she had the chance she would “break” the laws because
they went against her conscience as a Christian woman, and when given the chance
to both Mrs. and Mr. Bird do (Stowe, 9.23-9.116). Both Stowe and Thoreau
advocate civil disobedience in order to follow their conscience.
Thoreau and Stowe argue that individuals
should use their own conscience to determine their actions, even if those
actions violate the law. Thoreau’s “Resistance to Civil Government” contends
that without individualism men lose their humanity and those who serve the state
without conscience and individual identity, serve the state “as machines” and
“put themselves on a level with wood and earth and stone” (7).
Without the individual identity and conscience, humans cease to be humans
and if individuals want to be more than “machines” they have to make decisions
based on their conscience.
Stowe insisted that individuals should follow the “higher law” of their
conscience. In Uncle Tom’s Cabin, the
Quaker community and the actions and words of the Bird family to illustrate
those who choose to follow the “higher law” of their conscience and their
religious principles. In the Quaker community, Simeon states to his son, “I
would do even the same for the slaveholder as for the slave, if the Lord brought
him to my door in affliction” (13.77). Simeon’s words show that the Quakers were
following a “higher law” that commanded them to help the afflicted no matter who
they were and no matter if it broke the law.
The Quakers are used as example of those who
follow their own conscience as individuals. Thoreau’s “Resistance to Civil
Government” has become influence worldwide and he’s words helped inspire the
Civil Rights Movement, the protest against the Vietnam-War, and the students’
movements of the late 1960s. Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin would help facilitate the
abolishment movement. Learning experience: Both Stowe and Thoreau focused on the
idea of individualism and the importance of individuals using their conscience
to decide whether a law is just or not and to use civil disobedience if the law
is deemed unjust.
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