P3+EEdles

An individual judges right from wrong due to the influence of their parents, society, and the environment. Parents and society play a huge role in influencing a persons’ judgment, but a persons’ environment plays an even larger role. This is due to the fact that a person does things for themselves and their judgment is based on what is going on right then and there. The role of the individual in confronting injustice is basic human rights and being able to act against something that is being done to you that you believe is wrong. John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath depicts the struggle for a human judging right from wrong and the struggle for standing up for basic human rights in a time of crisis just as Henry Thoreau does in all parts of Civil Disobedience. In The Grapes of Wrath a common theme throughout the novel is the struggle for farmers during the Great Depression. Everyone was suffering and it was a fine line between having to starve yourself or help your family by doing something “wrong”. "The kids are hungry. We got no place to live. Like ants scurrying for work, for food, and most of all for land." (Chapter 19) Children need the essentials to live and it is heartbreaking for parents to see their children starve. Normally people think of stealing to be wrong and that you should never do it, but when your child is starving and you have no money the only way to get food for your family is to steal. This is a perfect example for how your environment changes an individuals’ perspective on what is right and what is wrong. A persons’ perspective changes as society’s perspective and how physically the environment changes as well. “The movement changed them; the highways, the camps along the road, the fear of hunger and the hunger itself, changed them.” (Chapter 21) As both society and the environment changed the road for the farmers got harder. The society is the fear of hunger through out the community and the environment changed, as the journey got longer. Environment can influence a persons’ judgment in a more literal sense. The farmers in The Grapes of Wrath are struggling due to their land being unfertile. "The surface of the earth crusted, a thin hard crust, and as the sky became pale, so the earth became pale, pink in the red country and white in the grey country." (Chapter 1)  This makes the farmers’ judgment harder because they personally feel as though they have not done anything wrong but they are still not being able to grow their crops. The farmers also did not know how to respond to the unfertile land. "...because the food must rot, must be forced to rot." (Chapter 25) This makes an emotional appeal to the situation making a persons judgment from right and wrong even harder. When an individual’s natural rights are becoming violated, that person needs to take the role of confronting injustice. When a government violates those rights it is the individuals’ duty to take a stand and stand up for their rights. In The Grapes of Wrath, the farmers experience a chaotic world and learn that they need structure and they need to decide what benefits their society at that point in time. "And the families learned, although no one told them, what rights are monstrous and must be destroyed..." (Chapter 17) The farmers taught themselves what was important to them and used it in their everyday life to try to make life better. This benefited society greatly and it is because the farmers realized that they have the power to confront injustice and form a better society that it was successful. A government can often lose touch with reality in its nation, and many times it is the duty of the individual to stand up for basic human rights for what they believe in. Henry Thoreau stands up for basic human rights in all three parts of Civil Disobedience. People sometimes need to be reminded that they can stand up for their rights and fight the power of the government, and that is exactly what Thoreau is trying to do. “Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience to the legislator? Why has every man a conscience then?” (Civil Disobedience Part 1) Thoreau uses rhetorical questions to point out the significance the government is letting the people down. It is the duty of the individual to rally up other individuals that have the same conflict with the government to show how they government is being unjust to them. “Some are petitioning the State to dissolve the Union, to disregard the requisitions of the President. Why do they not dissolve it themselves — the union between themselves and the State — and refuse to pay their quota into its treasury?” (Civil Disobedience Part 2) An argument is stronger when it is supported by many people not just one, and Thoreau is trying to get more people to not pay taxes as a boycott to the government. It is the individuals right to decide what is right and wrong and what they should stand up for and what they should not. "Is a democracy, such as we know it, the last improvement possible in government? Is it not possible to take a step further towards recognizing and organizing the rights of man?" (Civil Disobedience Part 3) Thoreau does not necessarily believe in a democratic society and that is his right. It is the duty of the individual to confront injustice and fight for their basic human rights. Individuals judge right from wrong mostly from the influence of society and their environment. It is an individuals’ duty to confront injustice of basic human rights and being able to stand up against something the individual thinks is wrong. Both John Steinbeck and Henry Thoreau explore this in their novel The Grapes of Wrath and all three parts of Civil Disobedience.