Is it ever okay to break the law?
Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau
Name: __________________________
After reading “Civil Disobedience” by Henry David Thoreau (pgs. 382-388),
answer the following questions.
1. What does it mean that the government is at best an “expedient” and
sometimes “inexpedient”?
2. What are Thoreau’s objections to a standing army and a standing
government?
3. In the United States government, why does majority rule? Does
Thoreau believe this is fair? Why or why not?
4. “Why has every man a conscience then? I think that we should be men
first, and subjects afterwards. It is not desirable to cultivate a respect
for the law, so much as for the right. The only obligation which I have
the right to assume is to do at any time what I think right.”
Explain Thoreau’s point of view in this excerpt. (pg. 384)
5. What does Thoreau mean by “The mass of men serve the state thus,
not as men mainly, but as machines, with their bodies”? (pg. 384)
Is it ever okay to break the law?
Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau
6. Under what circumstances should a citizen break a government law?
(pg. 385)
7. What does Thoreau mean that the jailing of “one honest man” would
bring “the abolition of slavery in America”? (Remember, at the time of
this writing, there is still slavery in America.)
8. Define Thoreau’s idea of a peaceable revolution?
9. Thoreau demonstrated his nonconformity by not paying his poll tax for
six years, and he spent a night in jail. What insight does his night in
jail bring to him?
10.
Explain the acorn/chestnut analogy.
11.
How did Thoreau’s time at Walden Pond reflect the ideas of living
according to “conscience,” as he describes in “Civil Disobedience”?