David Henry Hwang

the students remind me of Thoreau when he got arrested for defying the government laws for not paying his poll tax, but instead these students were switching to civil disobedience to support other students brought to the United States illegally. Henry Thoreau thought that people should live under what they believed in and not by the government rules. Like these dreamers believe that this is also a home of opportunity where they can continue with a college education. According to William Perez,…

In many recent occurrences, American citizens have demonstrated their ignorance towards the definition of civil disobedience by rioting and looting. In order to protest issues in an effective manner, the definition of civil disobedience must be known. Many high ranking historical and modern day figures tend to agree that civil disobedience must have a just cause, it must be an action that disrupts the status quo in some way, and finally, the civil disobedience must be proportional to the impact…

Authors, Henry David Thoreau and Maria Konnikova, both take on a similar view towards technology in that technology has negative impacts. Thoreau in his essay, “Where I Lived, and What I Lived For,” focuses on his love for nature, arguing that humans in society should take life at a slower pace and enjoy life surrounded by nature. Thoreau claims that technology renders peoples’ lives instead of making them simpler. However, Konnikova in her essay, “Do You Think like Sherlock Holmes?” states that…

norms of society. He spent two years traipsing around the country before he ultimately starved to death in Alaska. McCandless walks his pilgrimage out through the words of many famous transcendentalist thinkers, some being Ralph Waldo Emerson And Henry David Thoreau. McCandless’s guiding philosophy in his journey is transcendentalism is shown through his belief in nonconformism and anti-materialism. First, Christopher McCandless believes in the concept of non-conformity, a major component of…

Wayne Dyer, an American philosopher and self-help author, has stated that “People who truly understand what is meant by self-reliance know they must live their lives by ethics rather than rules.” (Dyer 16) Corresponding to Dyer’s expression, there are people in this world who seek independence and adventure. This position also echoes the protagonist’s principal value in Jon Krakauer’s novel “Into the Wild”. The book tells the story of Christopher McCandless, an American youth who wants to…

A major philosophy of Transcendentalism is the importance of time and how if you focus your life on the past then you will never succeed in the future. Unlike those who believe that we should stand on the shoulders of giants, Ralph Waldo Emerson would prove otherwise and would want Americans to focus on the future and not rely on the past to impact their lives. In his book Walden, he states “Why should we live with such hurry and waste of life? We are determined to be starved before we are…

Christopher McCandless was born on February 12, 1968 in California. He ended up studying at Emory University, and after graduating gave the $24,000 in his bank account to charity before disappearing from his family. McCandless then travelled around the country by means such as hitchhiking, and identified himself as Alex Supertramp. Alex arrived in Fairbanks Alaska in 1992, with the intent of living off the land, and his dead body was found a few months later about 19 days after McCandless’…

Martin Luther King Jr’s “Beyond Vietnam” and Malcolm X’s “Message to the Grassroot” are both powerful speeches to their own cause. Both similar in trying to prove America has its own agenda, but it’s not for the people’s benefit. Each speech speaks to the character of the speaker, which makes them so vastly different in perspective. Martin Luther King Jr was a renowned civil rights activist who advocated nonviolent protests to make a statement, whereas Malcolm X was an activist for black Muslim…

In Ian Frazier’s essay “In Praise of Margins,” he sees marginal places and activates valuable. The very word marginal to Ian Frazier has a simple meaning of a “negative tinge” (Frazier) where it is defined as actions and decisions that are non-goal oriented, or without purpose. In Frazier’s Own life, a marginal activity and a place for him and his friends were out in the woods as it was there “part-time address, destination, purpose, and excuse” (Frazier). However, growing up Frazier and his…

sight of the simplicity of life. People in modern society concern themselves too much with gaining wealth and spending free time on technology. This could be a threat to a person’s ability to fully appreciate nature and to see their self worth. Henry David Thoreau, poet and writer, lived in the wilderness away from distractions to experience self discovery. Through this time, he discovered the importance of not allowing a modern society to distract oneself from nature and self exploration.…