I will fight no more

I will fight no more is a pretty short literature piece that is about pretty much exactly what it sounds...a man who is tired of fighting and will fight no more although as a reader you are never really informed as to why he is fighting and who the man is fighting against. However, we do know that people are dying and that they are dying in battles. All the elders have died and only the young are left(McCloskey). I think maybe something a little deeper is meant by this. Perhaps there is a war and they are sick of fighting in this war, war was or is rather for that matter part of government. If this man was against war because he was sick of it then he would be against government. Being against government would relate to both Emerson and Thoreau because they did not believe in the whole idea of government especially Emerson who believed in the whole idea of civil disobedience(Quinn). Also both Emerson and Thoreau believed a lot on independence and not in society. I feel that this man wants to be independent and make his own decision to stop fighting instead of going with society and keep fighting. Also apperently society had not made the best decisions if everyone is dying and perhaps it would be better if people started to make their own decision and quit this fight. However, this chief justice seems very selfish because it was his job to fight and think and he is just giving up. It seems as if he is just giving up because he does not want to fight anymore, but maybe there were deeper thoughts behind this and as a reader reading this short piece I am just missing this. I would like to think that he was thinking the way Emerson and Thoreau did with the whole idea of being independent and did not want to go with society. I hope chief joseph was thinking with this mind set and not a selfish one.

McCloskey, Mary. "I Will Fight No More Forever." Welcome to Georgia State University. Web. 01 Mar. 2012.

Quinn, Edward. "Transcendentalism." A Dictionary of Literary and Thematic Terms, Second Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2006. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= DLLT1007&SingleRecord=True (accessed February 14, 2012)