David Henry Hwang

Oscar Wilde, an Irish author, who claims that "disobedience is a valuable human trait and that it promotes social progress" might be a valid answer because if you look back into our history, changes have been made through the disobedience of people who believe that whatever they're being told is wrong. However, being disobedient can lead to server punishment, but as you see in time changes happen when things are out of the ordinary through disobedience which can bring out the greatest effects in…

Civil disobedience is the public, conscientious, active breach of the law to bring about a change in law or public policy (The Archive). The framers of the Constitution understood that even a free and democratic society is not perfect on its own, and the only way to amend the problems is to allow for the people to speak out against any transgressions. Regrettably, imperfections are rooted deep in every single ruling institution. There are many examples in history in which these imperfections…

Romanticism and Transcendentalism were two important movements during the 18th and 19th centuries. Romanticism is associated with imagination and boundlessness. It began once the influential European artists and writers broke away from formalities and rationalities of the Enlightenment. Transcendentalism was not exactly a religion, but it was defined as a philosophy or form of spirituality. It began as a reform movement in the Unitarian church and was centered around Boston, Concord, and…

As time progresses, it is only reasonable that political thinking evolves and morals change yet overarching concepts remain constant. Though nearly a century apart, authors John Steinbeck and Henry David Thoreau discuss the long disputed issue of the role of a government in their respective works, Grapes of Wrath and “Civil Disobedience.” While Thoreau published his critical essay during the impending Mexican American War, Steinbeck focused on the Great Depression era and subsequent crises.…

The denotative meaning of civil disobedience is the refusal to obey laws as a way of forcing the government to do or change something. That "something" is usually a law or policy; but, in reality, how effective is civil disobedience by everyday citizens? Does peaceful resistance to laws positively or negatively impact a free society? The answer is not as clear cut as one might think; indeed, the results of civil disobedience are oftentimes subjective. On December 1, 1955, 42 year old Rosa…

Does peaceful resistance to laws positively or negatively impact a free society? The positive affect in civil disobedience, the negative side to it, and what I think about civil disobedience will be explained. What is civil disobedience? According to Wikipedia, civil disobedience is the refusal to comply with certain laws or to pay taxes and fines, as a peaceful form of political protest. Mahatma Gandhi, Muhammad Ali, Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, and several others performed a type of…

Ralph Waldo Emerson, the father of transcendentalism, created a major shift in American Literature. “Emerson was a central figure in the New England Transcendentalist Movement of the 1830s and 1840s and the founder of its magazine, The Dial” (Nature). This statement shows that Emerson was the leader of the transcendental movement, and this was one of the reason that he was considered as the father of transcendentalism. Being the central figure of transcendentalist, Emerson provided many of his…

Walden by Thoreau and Ancient Futures by Norberg-Hodge are both categorized as books that describe pre-WWII simple life where industrialization has not taken place. The authors of both books appreciate human beings who live harmoniously with nature and balance their leisure and working time. On the other hand, Americans described in Schor’s books The Overworked American and The Overspent American live an entirely different so-called “good life”, which destroy nature and environment drastically.…

Poets Society, directed by Peter Weir, is the story of an English teacher named John Keating, who teaches his students to question authority and to be their own man. The play The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail, written by Jerome Lawrence, describes how Henry Thoreau stood up to the government by refusing to pay taxes. Creating his own work called “from Walden” Thoreau writes about stepping away from society and journeying into the woods to get a new view on life. The story “from Self-Reliance”, by…

The guy rolled up wearing a swim cap, a pink jean jacket, and pajama pants. He did not care what others thought of how he looked. He liked it and that was all that mattered to him. He was an individualist, living life by his beliefs. This transcendentalist spirit occurs in works created by author Ralph Waldo Emerson and director Peter Weir. In the movie, Dead Poets Society, Mr. Keating’s philosophies are best represented by the celebrated spirit of the individual and value of emotions. One…