"Civil disobedience" is one of Henry David Thoreau's most famous essays. One of the biggest problems most critics see in this essay concerns Thoreau's seemingly contradictory statements about society from beginning to end. Barry Wood, a well-known critical writer, attributes this change of belief to Thoreau's enlightenment in prison. While I agree with Wood that Thoreau achieves a form of enlightenment, I will show that Thoreau's views regarding the society he lived in never changed in the essay: the only aspect of the essay that changed was the way in which Thoreau attacked his society. Thoreau uses his enlightened state to move from an overt and overt form of attack to a more subtle and psychological form. There are many issues in this essay that Thoreau expresses conflicting opinions on, such as the role of government in society, but his main focus is on the members of society themselves and how they cause most of the problems. Thoreau adopts a very authoritative tone at the beginning of the essay, showing his readers how they "serve the State thus, not chiefly as men, but as machines, with their bodies" (Thoreau 228). It implies that this "mass of men" uses men's bodies and not their consciences, which is why they do not "resist [the government]" like their revolutionary counterparts (Thoreau 228). This group is the audience Thoreau is addressing, as it is this majority group that currently supports government and society's problems. Thoreau draws the reader's attention by comparing these "citizens" to "wood, earth, and stones," inanimate objects not worthy of attention. title......middle of paper......resistance to civil disobedience", Thoreau gives the impression of changing his opinions and contradicting his beliefs about people in society. However, through this analysis I demonstrated that while his beliefs continue society has not changed, the ways in which he attacked this society have done By making his beliefs less obvious, he actually captured more of society's attention and made this essay one of the most controversial of his Time knows whether this essay would have been as influential. Works Cited Thoreau, Henry David. "Resistance to Civil Government," Barry "Thoreau's Narrative Art in 'Civil Disobedience'." Norton 2nd edition New York: WW Norton & Company.