ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

Detailed explanation-1: -Thoreau argued that the government must end its unjust actions to earn the right to collect taxes from its citizens. As long as the government commits unjust actions, he continued, conscientious individuals must choose whether to pay their taxes or to refuse to pay them and defy the government.

Detailed explanation-2: -Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience espouses the need to prioritize one’s conscience over the dictates of laws. It criticizes American social institutions and policies, most prominently slavery and the Mexican-American War.

Detailed explanation-3: -It was his intention at Walden Pond to live simply and have time to contemplate, walk in the woods, write, and commune with nature.

Detailed explanation-4: -Although Thoreau asserts that a man has other, higher duties than eradicating institutional wrong, he must at least not be guilty through compliance. The individual must not support the structure of government, must act with principle, must break the law if necessary.