Civil Disobedience the ideas of Thoreau and Dr King Essay Example

Injustice and inequality have ruined the integrity of many governments throughout history.  Without the cooperation of the people and their governments, there would be no peace.  The people, in the words of Henry Thoreau, Gandhi, and Martin Luther King, must object to the government when they've done wrong.  A few of the most impactful revolutions in the world have been led by these voices, and have shaped their countries for the better.  Their success has relied on their methods, all beginning civil disobedience.  Each of their different fights and beliefs allowed them to use civil disobedience as a blueprint and used their ideas to shape their actions.  Thoreau and Dr. King, for example, use civil disobedience but have different views on religion, patience, and they use different appeals to make their leadership more powerful.

Dr. King is known for his religious views and includes those beliefs in his writing.  He uses references to the Bible in The Letter from Birmingham Jail, such as: “...and just as the Apostle Paul left his little village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to practically every hamlet and city of the Greco-Roman world, I too am compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my particular hometown.” (King 3)  King doesn’t only use his references as a spread of the gospel, but also as a way to appeal to credibility and bring in a specific religious group to join the cause.  Of course, his belief in the impact of non-violent protests also was influenced by his religious beliefs.  He points out in paragraph 21 of The Letter from Birmingham Jail that another group of objectors who believe in violence have frustration, they don’t believe in changing minds, and “...have absolutely repudiated Christianity”, therefore implying that his non-violence is not only fueled by his open-mind, but also by his faith.   Thoreau is very different in his words.  Searching words like “God”, “Jesus”, and “Christianity” in Dr. King’s letter brings up many examples with appropriate contexts associated with his ideas.  While these words do not automatically mean that someone has a relationship with God, Dr. King uses these words as his motive.  Thoreau has a seemingly very different motive in his writing. In his writing, he uses secular ideas in his writing in order to connect everyone to his movement, not just a certain group.   “Can there not be a government in which majorities do not virtually decide right and wrong, but conscience?--in which majorities decide only those questions to which the rule of expediency is applicable?” (Thoreau 4),  Thoreau believes the reason to object to the government’s injustice should be as simple as the people using their conscience in order to reform and keep humanity in the government. 

Thoreau’s and King’s writing, while containing different beliefs, both have a strong impact and share a frustrated tone, however, their appeals in their writing are different.  King uses a more emotional as well as credibility appeal in his writing, as stated in the last paragraph, while Thoreau uses more logical appeals.  To explain why the government should appreciate criticism, Thoreau references many historical “rebels” who wanted to create reform saying,” Why does it not encourage its citizens to be on the alert to point out its faults, and do better than it would have them? Why does it always crucify Christ, and excommunicate Copernicus and Luther, and pronounce Washington and Franklin rebels?”  Using these references, Thoreau uses a logical appeal by showing the reader a few examples of reformers who did well for their communities although they were shut down many times for being too radical.  King uses a lot of stories from the lives of growing up as an African-American during his time.  For example, “...when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six-year-old daughter why she cannot go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her little eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see the depressing clouds of inferiority begin to form in her little mental sky, and see her begin to distort her little personality by unconsciously developing a bitterness toward white people…”  This story is used to appeal to the emotion of the reader, and to look closer at the others they criticize.  He forces them to see that the people being oppressed are children, and will grow up in a never-changing world of hate, not just for them, but also for the white people who oppressed them.  Although these appeals are very separate in their tone, they both are used effectively in creating a similar idea of what the world would be like if there was no reform. 

Although it is overlooked, patience is one of the many keys to successful civil disobedience.  Thoreau and King had similar views, as long as a few different views on being patient.  While waiting in a jail cell as they both wrote their letters to the world,  King and Thoreau showed their patience as well as obedience to the law.  Rather than using their time in jail to sit and be angry, they fueled their writing with their anger, and patiently awaited their freedom from jail.  Thoreau and King’s views become different when it comes to waiting for laws to change, and for justice to be served.  Thoreau did not pay his taxes for 6 years and continued to protest until the law and the people had seen his protest.  His act of not paying his taxes started a revolution for many who felt useless in the battle against war.  Patience for Thoreau was what allowed him to be the famous and impactful man he became.  As for Dr. King, although he believed in waiting and hoping for a better future, he did not believe in wasting a second not fighting for what is right.  King has the belief that “justice too long delayed is justice denied,” (King 11), and is tired of being told to wait for justice.  He writes in his letter about how long African Americans waited for their rights, and this allowed him and others to continue fighting even today, and to persevere even when justice seems lost forever.  

In the end, Thoreau and King at the time of their writing were in completely different fights for justice.  Thoreau fought for the right to have a voice in his country when his freedom of speech was questioned and used civil disobedience by not paying his taxes, as well as writing about it to impact others.  Martin Luther King was the voice of an entire country of oppressed frustrated people fighting for their right to simply stand next to a white man in a public area.  Their audiences in their time were very different and were fighting for different causes.  However, today these pieces show the reader a piece of history that shifted the meaning of civil disobedience.  Today, people fight their own battles of injustice and inequality, and the words of Martin Luther King, Gandhi, and Henry Thoreau are all proof that reform is the one similarity that brings each of their different beliefs together.