David Henry Hwang

Self-Reliance Rhetorical Analysis Transcendentalism was a philosophical movement that developed in the late 1820s in the Eastern region of the United States as a protest against the general state of intellectualism and spirituality. Most of the Transcendentalists became involved as well in social reform movements, especially anti-slavery and women's rights. Finding its root in the word “transcend,” Transcendentalists believed individuals could transcend to a higher plane of existence in nature.…

For thousands of years the government has overruled its people, and has simply become a theory, a theory that has created great controversy. The predominant debate is whether the government should have a limit upon its influence amongst citizens. Henry D. Thoreau believes that the government exploits its people, the government in its own way is tyrannical. Alongside Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson believes that the government is corrupt, the only form of liberation is self-reliance. And for this,…

America was founded for many reasons , one of them being freedom. Recently we have seemed to have forgotten that reason . It seems that throughout time we have forgotten that everyone is equal . That it doesn't matter what your race is . that it doesn't matter who your ancestors were, it only matter who you as a person are . We always to look past this. We always seem to put our personal opinion over everything else . As if your way is right and everything else is wrong . I believe that no…

Henry David Thoreau was a strong believer in using your conscience. When it comes to government he believes in a motto, “that government is best which governs least;”…””that government is best which governs not at all;” and when are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have.” (page 177) He believes that you should trust in your conscience and not follow along with what you are told to do. Trust in what you believe in and do what you feel is right. Thoreau says,…

Ralph Waldo Emerson started his ministry as a Unitarian but soon broke away from the Unitarianism and becoming very influential with the rise of Transcendentalism. Emerson talks a lot about nature in religion and the importance of the world around. In the first selection Nature is about how nature relates to God and how people should see God though nature. In the last section Self-Reliance Emerson has some parallels to Benjamin Franklin view of religion and nature interconnected. In Nature…

penalty” -Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. argues in “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” that it is our duty to break a law if it is unfair. King advocates disobeying a country’s prejudice laws in order to avoid immorality. Similarly, Henry David Thoreau argues in “Civil Disobedience” that if a law requires a person to be unjust to another, they should break it. Thoreau also argues that morality costs less than obeying an unjust law. While King and Thoreau have similar ideas for…

What is walking? Is it an aimless way to waste time with no real destination? Do we as humans walk with a purpose or with somewhere to be? In Henry David Thoreau’s piece, Walking, he discusses the beauty of nature and how we as humans are “an inhabitant of nature, rather than a member of society. (Pg. 49)” Thoreau discloses how we as a society never are able to just get out and walk anymore. We spend so much of our lives with places to be and things to do that we never have time to walk around…

Disobedience is often looked at as an unfavorable trait. Disobedience can sometimes result in progress, but also other times it can result in distress or conflict. When the world as a whole is viewed, disobedience has been used as a tool either to gain triumph or to invoke conflict. Disobedience isn’t necessarily good or bad, it all depends on what the final goal is to determine whether it was worth it. In some cases disobedience is needed in order to make progress. Most countries in the…

Martin Luther King Jr. Civil Disobedience Civil Rights Activist Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase.” Martin Luther King was a man who took leaps of faith to fulfill what he believed to be right; he chose to put his life on the line for equality. Martin Luther King Jr.’s involvement in civil disobedience was due to personal influences, he chose to participate in civil disobedience to protest unfair racial treatment, and…

Transcendentalism was a religious and philosophical movement that developed during 1820’s in the western region of the United States. This is a very simple idea. All people have knowledge about themselves and the entire world around them that “transcends” or goes beyond what they can see. People can trust themselves to be their own authority on what is right. The people who were closely associated with this new way of thinking and looking at the world were known as the Transcendental Club. The…