Emerson And Walt Whitman Comparison

These three men all had one thing in common, they weren’t afraid to be different. Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Thoreau, and Walt Whitman were all icons of historic American Literature. Their views and actions were shunned as crazy, but that didn’t stop them from being themselves. All of them were similar, yet branched out into their own particular views. Emerson was the original transcendentalist, Thoreau took after him and created his own views, and Walt Whitman probably the most different of them all, having his own unique writing style and thoughts. To start off, Ralph Waldo Emerson was a very complex man. His self-reliance was also very complex, he promoted spontaneity, non-conformity, and belief in one’s own principles. Emerson was the …show more content…
Thoreau, as would seem, was a similar thinker to Emerson. This was quite predictable considering he was Emerson’s protégé for many years. Where Emerson is viewed by many as preachy and pretentious, his counterpart, Thoreau, is admired for his humility and ere of approachability. In his world famous Civil Disobedience, Thoreau asserts that, “Government is best which governs not at all.” Thoreau stands for the rights of the people and that their beliefs of necessities should be respected. In this case specifically, he suggests that the Mexican-American war is in opposition to what the people desire. Thoreau definitely comes off as more radically and it seems that he feels ignored as to what he has to say. However, it is noted that both Ghandi and Martin Luther King Jr. have cited Thoreau’s essay as influential to their political philosophies. Greatness is surrounded by greatness, and this shows it. It’s simply put, the work of a mastermind. Thoreau’s essays show an acute grasp of the American economy and government despite his separation from such institutions. Thoreau wasn’t ever looked at as great as his mentor, Emerson, but I believe he was truly undermined in his time, it is sad to say that he never realized the appreciation he would later receive. He was most definitely the most different of all three, he was probably the most rebellious of the three. In the given article, it is stated, …show more content…
All of the men were non-conformists but had different ideals of transcendentalism. Ralph Waldo Emerson was the first and glorified writer, the others followed his footsteps, Thoreau being his immediate student. Thoreau swayed from Emerson’s ideal, but nowhere near as much as Walt Whitman, who was easily the weirdest one of the three. Walt Whitman was a poet, which was different in terms of the writings that the other two did, but his main sway was highlighted in his prayer to nature and non-belief in a higher power, in which the other two did. Anyways, all of them had some similar form of ideals, more so Thoreau and Emerson, but they all did think similar as being transcendentalists, in the end, they all did transcend above those in their time, didn’t