1. The Literature of Civil Disobedience
ELA Lesson 3 in the “Save the Trees”
Integrated Project

2. Standing Rock Video – LA Times

3. Discussion Questions:
1. What do you know about the controversy?
2. Are the protesters expressing their opinion appropriately?
3. What is the connection to the PG&E controversy in Oroville?

4. “Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Nothing is at
last sacred but
the integrity of
your own mind.”

5. Emerson was born on May 25, 1803 in Boston, Massachusetts.
He attended the Boston Latin School, followed by Harvard University ( graduated 1821) and the Harvard School of Divinity.
He was licensed as a minister in 1826 and ordained to the Unitarian church in 1829.

6. Emerson married Ellen Tucker in 1829
Emerson married Ellen Tucker in When she died of tuberculosis in 1831, he was grief-stricken. Her death, added to his own recent crisis of faith, caused him to resign from the clergy.

7. In 1832 Emerson traveled to Europe, where he met with literary figures Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth When he returned home in 1833, he began to lecture on topics of spiritual experience and ethical living. He moved to Concord, Massachusetts, in 1834 and married Lydia Jackson in 1835.

8. Emerson found kindred spirits in a circle of writers and thinkers who lived in Concord, especially his friend Henry David Thoreau.
Emerson and Thoreau became the lead figures in a movement known as “American Transcendentalists.”

9. These writers shared a key belief that each individual could transcend, or move beyond, the physical world of the senses into deeper spiritual experience through free will and intuition. In this school of thought, believers understood God and themselves by looking into their own souls and by feeling their own connection to nature.

10. Emerson is best remembered for his essays: “Friendship” and “Self-Reliance”
Emerson is seen as an important figure in American literature and philosophy. He perished in 1882.

11. Vocabulary: suffrage (n) capitulate (v) titular (adj) ephemeral (adj)
importune (v)
arduous (adj)

12. suffrage (n) - the right to vote
Note: Emerson seems to be using the archaic definition: a vote given in assent to a proposal or
in favor of the election of a particular person.
capitulate (v)- cease to resist an opponent or an unwelcome demand; surrender.
importune (v)- ask (someone) pressingly and persistently for or to do something, to lobby

13. titular (adj)- 
holding or constituting a purely formal
position or title without any real authority.
ephemeral (adj) - lasting for a very short time.
arduous (adj) - 
involving or requiring strenuous effort; difficult and tiring.

15. Henry David Thoreau
Thoreau was born on July 2, 1817 in Concord, Mass.
He began to write poetry while a young man, and he became a friend of
Ralph Waldo Emerson.

16. Thoreau liked to write about nature and man’s relationship to the environment. In 1845 he moved to a small cabin on Emerson’s property at Walden Pond. Thoreau stayed two years at the pond and produced his most famous work: Walden.

17. Walden is considered a classic of American literature
Walden is considered a classic of American literature. Thoreau became known, like Emerson, for his belief in transcendentalism. He supported civil liberties and opposed slavery (he was an abolitionist). Thoreau was also strongly opposed to the war with Mexico ( ).

18. While living at Walden, Thoreau got in trouble with a tax collector
While living at Walden, Thoreau got in trouble with a tax collector. Thoreau had refused to pay a poll tax, and he spent a night in jail. While in jail, he wrote his famous essay “Civil Disobedience.”

19. Thoreau, like Emerson, is considered an important contributor to American literature and philosophy. He died in 1862.

21. Martin Luther King Interviewed on Meet the Press March 28th 1965
Discussion Questions:
1. What is the essential point that MLK has in agreement with Thoreau?
2. According to MLK, what is the key quality to Civil Disobedience that justifies it and sets it apart from criminality?

22. The Emerson Awards Research Project
“He who would gather immortal palms must not be hindered by the
name of goodness, but must explore if it be goodness.”
“Speak what you think now in hard words… you shall be sure to be misunderstood.
Is it so bad to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates,
and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus and Galileo and Newton…
To be great is to be misunderstood.”

23. Objective: Research and identify a real person (no fictional characters)
that you believe to be a “great and wise spirit” based on Emerson’s words
and the practice of Civil Disobedience.
Produce a poster or presentation (as assigned) that includes the following information:
An image (photograph) of the individual
A brief biography of the individual 5-7 biographic details
List of published writings, speeches, awards, accomplishments
A quote by (or about if no quote is available) the person
A brief explanation of how the person had to stand up to authority for what he/she believed in and the consequences for those actions.
Present:
Your poster should be large enough to incorporate the information above. If your product is digital (a presentation), it should have a separate “slide” for each requirement.
Be prepared to present your work and “pitch” the person as a nominee for
AN EMERSON.

24. In your groups:
-Each person presents their
“Emerson Project”
- Share all aspects of your project and focus on why the
person you selected fits the criteria for “An Emerson.”
-Vote on the best most deserving candidate to
present to the class.
-Ties are allowed; your group may “nominate” two.