America has long been recognized as a democratic nation, a nation operating under the will of the people. America's ancestors fought tirelessly against British tyranny to return to a land of freedom and opportunity. Because America revived the ancient Greek ideology of democracy, the nation stood out from the rest of the world and was revered for the freedom and justice it offered its people. However, not everyone believes that American democracy is synonymous with liberty and freedom. On the contrary, writers like Henry David Thoreau in “Civil Disobedience” and “Slavery in Massachusetts,” as well as Herman Melville in “Benito Cereno” and “Bartleby the Scrivener,” suggest that democracy can actually oppress and restrict the individual . no to plagiarism. Get a custom essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the original essay In “Civil Disobedience,” Thoreau criticizes the American government for its democratic nature, namely the idea of ​​majority government . Like earlier transcendentalists, such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Thoreau believed in the importance of the individual. In a society where many individuals have conflicting perceptions and beliefs, Emerson chooses passivity and isolation to avoid conflict with others. However, unlike Emerson, Thoreau rejects passivity and challenges his readers to oppose government that focuses on majorities rather than individuals. Thoreau argues that when power is in the hands of the people, the majority rules, "not because they are most likely to be right, nor because it seems most right to the minority, but because they are physically the strongest” (Thoreau 64). ). Thoreau describes this fundamental element of democracy, where power rests with the majority, as a brutal fight where the strongest win. In later passages, Thoreau describes the majority in a democracy as men who "serve the State thus, and not as men chiefly," but as machines, with their bodies," where "in most cases they do not 'there is no free exercise of judgment or moral sense' (66). He believes that those who belong to a democracy are essentially machines controlled by the majority, incapable of making choices for themselves. He then goes further by comparing the majority to slaves, saying: "When the majority finally votes for the abolition of slavery, it will be because it is indifferent to slavery, or because there remains more than a little slavery to abolish... . They will then be the only slaves” (Thoreau 70). Thoreau repeatedly condemns the democratic system for its lack of morality and its tendency to disempower the individual. In “Slavery in Massachusetts,” Thoreau offers an analogy that seems compelling, but turns out to be inadequate. He argues that in a democracy, "if the majority votes for the devil to be God, the minority will live and behave accordingly, and obey the successful candidate, hoping that one day or another... they will be able to rejoin God." » (Thoreau 103). Thoreau clearly neglects the opposite scenario. What if the minority voted for the devil to be God and the majority lived accordingly? What is fairest? These questions seem to be better addressed by a less outspoken writer, Herman Melville. In “Benito Cereno,” Melville presents several symbolic images of democracy. Amasa Delano, the captain of the American ship, seems to be the representative democratic figure. The narrator describes him as good-hearted, optimistic, and a capable captain who runs an orderly ship. However, at the end of theshort story, the reader discovers that Amasa does not realize that San Dominick was overthrown by the captive slaves because he is extremely naive and ignorant. Ironically, Amasa, the representative of American freedom and democracy, comes to the rescue of the San Dominick to help reclaim the slaves. Amasa's American ship has the interesting name Bachelor's Delight, which is a historical reference to a ship owned by a Northerner who avoided the subject of slavery. But perhaps Melville named the American ship that because he thought Americans actually behaved like charming bachelors in a country where people of other ethnicities are a large part of the social makeup. America is a partnership or, in a sense, a marriage between the different ethnicities that reside within the nation. By enslaving blacks, Melville could be insinuating that Americans have behaved inappropriately as single people, neglecting and even mistreating those with whom they live simply because they have become the majority. San Dominick is also a microcosm of democracy. Just as Thoreau suggests, the many rule over the few, but in this case the many are fighting for a benevolent cause, which is their own freedom. Yet when history reveals the atrocious acts committed by the captives during the seizure of power, Melville shows how barbaric majority rule can be. The captives use brute force to gain power and have no respect for authority, as evidenced by the cruel murders of Don Alexandro Aranda, the slave owner, and Raneds, one of the ship's companions. Eventually, the slaves are recaptured by Amasa and his men; once again, a demonstration of the majority in power, "not because they are the most likely to be right... but because they are physically the strongest" (Thoreau 64). When Amasa first boards the San Dominick, he finds the ship in deplorable condition. Because it is a slave ship, Melville uses the decrepit state of the ship to express the moral corruption of slavery. Some may say that it is because the slaves have taken over the ship that the ship becomes disorderly, but how can the slaves know how a ship works? Like so many other skills their masters denied them, slaves probably never learned how to steer a ship. The majority, in its efforts to suppress the minority, denied the slaves this knowledge. Melville also comments on democracy in “Bartleby, the Scrivener”. The story reveals at the end that Bartleby was fired from his job at the Dead Letter Office in Washington. Despite the insignificance of his position as a junior clerk in the Bureau of Dead Letters, he was part of the country's democratic government, but following a change of administration he was unexpectedly dismissed. While experiencing feelings of betrayal and despair that threaten him, he becomes a writer. There he continues to suffer from the oppression of the majority. In the editor's office, Bartleby is clearly in the minority compared to the majority of Nippers, Turkey, Ginger and their boss. When Bartleby begins to refuse to do what he is told, his colleagues physically threaten him, just as Thoreau predicted the majority would do in "Civil Disobedience." In many ways, Bartleby is Thoreau's ideal man. Bartleby does exactly what Thoreau urges people to do, which is to speak out against the oppression of a democracy. He does not back down from his colleague's threats and practices "civil disobedience", which Bartleby literally does by politely repeating: "I would rather not do it" (Melville 19)..