Thoreau versus Gandhi

Henry David Thoreau was a Romanticism poet during the 1800's. Romanticism poets were obviously during the Romanticism period, a period of literature in response to the earlier Rationalism Period. Rationalists believed in using logic and reason. They were very interested in learning and gaining knowledge, and they were also very interested in and curious about science. This is when many early inventions, such as the lightning rod and stove, came about. As a response to that period, came the Romanticism Period. This time of literature was quite the opposite. Romanticists believed in using intuition rather than logic, feelings rather than reason, and searched for a figurative meaning in things rather than a scientific meaning. They wrote about nature and the beauty of it, patriotism, love, myth, happiness, and religion. This time period was much different from the Rationalism Period. Thoreau was of this period, and even though he started out with the literature consisting of the Romanticism ideal, he later gave this style of literature up.

    One of the ideas of Romanticist poets was that it was okay to break the law if it went against one's morality or innocence. This was their idea. This is also in common with Gandhi, an Indian peaceful activist. Both said that it was acceptable to break the law since it went against the rights of the people. "I have paid no poll-tax for six years. I was put into a jail once on this account, for one night; and as I stood considering the walls of solid stone, two or three feet thick, the door of wood and iron, a foot thick, and the iron grating which strained the light, I could not help being struck with the foolishness of that institution which treated me as if I were mere flesh and blood and bones, to be locked up" (Thoreau, 224). In Gandhi's "On the Eve of Historic Dandi March," Gandhi says, "Wherever possible, civil disobedience of salt laws should be started. These laws can be violated in three ways" (Gandhi, 229). They both gave permission to the idea of civil disobedience, of not following the government laws because they were not in favor of the people. However, Henry David Thoreau and Mohandas K. Gandhi were different in how they used the civil disobedience.

    Thoreau disobeyed the law for himself. He did not want to pay a poll tax, so he did not. He did not include others in his opposition, only himself, and to him, it was more of a single gain, not for multiple people. "Even the Chinese philosopher was wise enough to regard the individual as the basis of the empire" (Thoreau, 227). Henry Thoreau went it alone and individually gained from it, but Gandhi was disobeying for all of the people. He wanted everyone to continue the peaceful fight for rights. "I shall eagerly await the news that ten batches are ready as soon as my batch is arrested. I believe there are men in India to complete the work begun by me" (Gandhi, 230). Both of them disobeyed, but only Gandhi looked for the bigger and greater outcome. Thoreau looked to benefit himself, and though they both criticized the government, Gandhi did so in looking out for the many others of India. Thoreau did so for the individual, not the group.

 

Works Cited

 

Thoreau, Henry David. "Civil Disobedience." American Literature. Columbus, Ohio: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 222-227. Print.

Gandhi, Mohandas. "One the Eve of Historic Dandi March." American Literature. Columbus, Ohio: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 229-230. Print.