1. Bellringer—Find All 10 Errors
Henry david Thoreau was jailed in the 1840s for refusing to pay a pole tax. The tax supported the war with Mexico and the extension of slavery which he strongly opposed. Thoreau did pay his other taxes. He Coined the term “civil disobedience” in the title of his essay arguing in favor of non-violin opposition to slavery. Civil Disobedience asserts that unjust laws require our action in order to work. Thoreau advucated resistance: "I do not lend myself to the wrong which i condem." Normal legal channels to overturn those laws either do not exist or take to long.

2. “Civil Disobedience” by Henry David Thoreau
Lesson 2

3. Unit Objective
Students will analyze the complex ideas and language in Thoreau’s “Civil Disobedience.” In addition to exploring Thoreau’s ideas, students will consider the power of his language in particular, how his use of rhetoric and figurative language establishes his point of view.

4. Guiding Question
How is the author’s point of view conveyed throughout the text?

5. Daily Objective
TLW analyze how the author’s point of view is shaped and refined through the use of rhetoric, specific language, phrases, and intertextual connections.

6. Review Paragraph 1
We need a volunteer to summarize our reading from yesterday!

7. Focus for Today’s Reading
While we listen to paragraph 2, focus on HOW Thoreau express his beliefs about the American government.

8. This American government- what is it but a tradition, though a recent one, endeavoring to transmit itself unimpaired to posterity, but each instant losing some of its integrity? It has not the vitality and force of a single living man; for a single man can bend it to his will. It is a sort of wooden gun to the people themselves. But it is not the less necessary for this; for the people must have some complicated machinery or other, and hear its din, to satisfy that idea of government which they have. Governments show thus how successfully men can be imposed on, even impose on themselves, for their own advantage. It is excellent, we must all allow. Yet this government never of itself furthered any enterprise, but by the alacrity with which it got out of its way. It does not keep the country free. It does not settle the West. It does not educate. The character inherent in the American people has done all that has been accomplished; and it would have done somewhat more, if the government had not sometimes got in its way. For government is an expedient by which men would fain succeed in letting one another alone; and, as has been said, when it is most expedient, the governed are most let alone by it. Trade and commerce, if they were not made of India-rubber, would never manage to bounce over the obstacles which legislators are continually putting in their way; and, if one were to judge these men wholly by the effects of their actions and not partly by their intentions, they would deserve to be classed and punished with those mischievous persons who put obstructions on the railroads.

9. Focus Question
How does Thoreau express his beliefs about the American government?
NOTE: I am not asking what his views are—I am asking HOW he expresses them.

10. Collaboration
How does the comparison to “a single living man” develop an idea about government?
How does Thoreau’s reference to “complicated machinery” develop an idea about government?
How does Thoreau support his claim that government “never of itself furthered any enterprise”?
How does the meaning of expedient change within part 1, paragraph 2?
What is the meaning of “letting one another alone” and “let alone” in part 1, paragraph 2?

11. Exit Ticket
How does the wooden gun metaphor in paragraph 2 develop an idea about government and the people?
Sample Answer: In this context, the wooden gun metaphor clearly conveys the idea of a lack of power. Prior to this reference in the text, Thoreau has not been discussing war or weaponry. He is discussing the government. In thinking about his point regarding the government, it is clear that the Thoreau views the government as having no real power. Unlike a real gun, a wooden gun has no power and is, therefore, ineffectual or, as Thoreau would say, “inexpedient.”
Source: help/interpreting-literary-devices