CLASS 14: EWRT 2

AGENDAEssays 3 and 4Discussion: Cicero and

Thoreau Rhetorical Strategies Questions for Critical

Reading

Essay #3: ReminderEssay #3 will be combined with the

topics for #4. It will be an in-class essay that will be

given in week 10, class 19. You will have the questions before the

test.The total points for the class will change

from 1000 to 900.

on Thoreau

Please get out paper and pencil for a

Get into your groups

Spend 10 minutes preparing for our discussion on Thoreau and Cicero

Which

Rhetorica

l

Strateg

ies

does Th

oreau

use?

Thoreau uses balanced sentence structure to emphasize the ways that a supposedly democratic and representative government can be corrupted through the influence of powerful persons:

“[Government] has not the vitality and force of a single living man; for a single man can bend it to his will.”

Thoreau uses a metaphor to suggest that democratic government, as it exists in his day, is actually a sham:

“It is a sort of wooden gun to the people themselves.”

In other words, Thoreau suggests that government gives people the mere illusion of power while actually leaving them powerless.

The rhetorical question, "Unjust laws exist: shall we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress them at once? ..... Why is it not more apt to anticipate and provide for reform? Why does it not cherish its wise minority? Why does it cry and resist before it is hurt?

First-person narration allows Thoreau to frame a complex and abstract political issue in a voice that personally bears witness to the human effects and consequences of government oppression. While confident in his conviction that slavery is morally wrong, Thoreau generally avoids dogmatic, authoritative statements in favor of a more tentative, moderate first-person voice. He prefers cautious formulations such as "This, then, is my position at present" over more militant, definitive ones that might alienate or put his reader on the defensive.

Thoreau personifies the State "as a lone woman with her silver spoons." He casts government not as a mechanical agent of injustice but as a feminized object of pity. During his stay in prison, Thoreau comes to the realization that, far from being a formidable brute force, government is in fact weak and morally pathetic. That he should choose the figure of a woman to make this point reveals an interestingly gendered conception of civil disobedience, given the constant emphasis on the virtues of men in relation to the State, here personified as a woman.

Chiasmus “Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a

just man is in prison” Allusion

"But almost all say that such is not the case now. But such was the case, they think, in the Revolution of '75. If one were to tell me that this was a bad government because it taxed certain foreign commodities brought to its ports, it is most probable that I should not make an ado about it, for I can do without them."

He utilizes techniques such as repetition to emphasize certain points (Anaphora). "It does not keep the

country free. It does not settle the West. It does not educate”

Analogy "If I have unjustly

wrested a plank from a drowning man, I must restore it to him though I drown myself.”

Rhetorical Strategies Paradox “It is truly enough said,

that a corporation has no conscience; but a corporation of conscientious men is a corporation with a conscience.”

• Aphorism: • “the progress from an

absolute to a limited monarchy, from a limited monarchy to a democracy, is a progress toward a true respect for the individual”

• “If a plant cannot live according to its nature it dies and so a man.”

Questions for Critical Reading

How would you characterize the tone

of Thoreau’s address?

Is he chastising his audience? Is he praising it? What opinion do you think he has of his audience?

Explain what Thoreau means when he says, “But a

government in which the majority rule in all

cases cannot be based on justice, even as far as men

understand it.”

How is injustice “part of the necessary friction of

the machine of government?”

Why does Thoreau provide us with “the whole history of ‘My Prisons’”? Describe what being in jail taught Thoreau. Why do you think Thoreau reacted so strongly to being in a local jail

for a single day?

How might Thoreau view the responsibility of the majority to a minority within the sphere of

government?

Responsibility“It is not a man's duty, as a matter of course,

to devote himself to the eradication of any, even the most enormous, wrong; he may still properly have other concerns to engage him; but it is his duty, at least, to wash his hands of it, and, if he gives it no thought longer, not to give it practically his support.”

Unjust laws exist: shall we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress them at once? Men, generally, under such a government as this, think that they ought to wait until they have persuaded the majority to alter them. They think that, if they should resist, the remedy would be worse than the evil. But it is the fault of the government itself that the remedy is worse than the evil. It makes it worse. Why is it not more apt to anticipate and provide for reform? Why does it not cherish its wise minority? Why does it cry and resist before it is hurt? Why does it not encourage its citizens to put out its faults, and do better than it would have them? Why does it always crucify Christ and excommunicate Copernicus and Luther, and pronounce Washington and Franklin rebels?

Under a government which imprisons unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison.

How clear are Thoreau’s concepts of justice? On what are they based?

Which

Rhetorica

l

Strateg

ies

Does Cice

ro

Use?

Argument Dialogue (Between Philus and Laelius)

Definition/interpretation (What is Justice?)

Offers Alternatives (perform injustice/not suffer

it; perform and suffer; neither perform or suffer it)

Evaluation (perform injustice and not

suffer it)

Compares (Justice to policies of

Rome)Contrasts (Wisdom with Justice)Analogy (virtuous man vs. ruffian)Counterargument (by Laelius at the end to

make his point)

Rhetorical Strategies

Questions for Critical Reading

Why does Laelius choose Philus to argue against justice?

Does Arguing against a positive value help our understanding of

that value’s importance?

What is Philus’s Reputation and how does it affect his argument?

How do ideas of justice

differ in the different

lands Philus Mentions?

To What Extent is Philus a Feminist?

Which of Laelius’s statements in the final paragraphs of the selection seem weakest to you? What are the Strengths?

HOMEWORK

Post #27 PASS

Post #28 QHQ: How can we apply the philosophy of Cicero and/or Thoreau to A Game of Thrones? Make sure to include textual support in your post.