Honors Essay on Civil Disobedience
Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. are two people known for
their civil protest of unjust laws. These two men throughout their lives
acknowledged the fact that the great American thinker Henry David Thoreau keyed
the term “civil disobedience” and in fact demonstrated this philosophy by protesting
unjust laws. Read the excerpt from Thoreau’s essay “On Civil Disobedience”. How
does Thoreau define civil disobedience? From reading the excerpt, what was
Thoreau protesting? Use this essay to explain how three acts of protest in the film
“Gandhi” would be considered acts of civil disobedience. Also, do some research to
find three acts of protest committed by Martin Luther King Jr. Explain these acts
and tell how they would also be acts of civil disobedience and would be similar or
different to Gandhi. Last of all, do you think that civil disobedience could still be
used today as an efficient means to end injustice? What injustices in the world
could be protested and stopped through the use of civil disobedience? Explain!
Make sure for all parts of this writing assignment you explain and are thorough.
Also be sure to cite all sources and use MLA format.