Fly Away Transcendental Values

The song “Fly Away” by 5 Seconds of Summer has transcendental values of individuality and a respect for nature but with some understandable values for the modern age. This upbeat song includes verses that Emerson or Thoreau would have found charming. Although this song does not show much interest in God or religion at all, it makes up for the firm confidence and self-reliance that is so important to people of transcendentalist values. This 5 Seconds of Summer song shares some of the same values that Emerson and Thoreau use: self-reliance, nonconformity, and a want to experience nature. Yet, because of the modern tone of the song, they also include values that are different from Emerson or Thoreau including: a longing for possessions, letting the past conflict their …show more content…
The song describes a longing for something that cannot physically be theirs because they want a combination of places in the world that cannot be made. Emerson says, “To go into solitude, a man needs to retire as much from his chamber as from society,” (219), this is contradictory to the song lyrics, “I wanna take my heart to the end of the world / And fly away tonight / I want a little bit of open ocean / With a New York state of mind." These two lines contradict because even though the song is saying that they want to travel more, they also want to be more involved in society, which is contradictory because Emerson said, “Society everywhere is a conspiracy,” (225). One of the major non-transcendental aspects of the song is that God or religion is not mentioned once, which was a very important theme to transcendentalist because believed that there is a piece of God in everyone. The song has some very strong transcendental relations but also has other aspects to appeal to the more modern group of the music