Transcendentalism Essay

Thoreau’d, Less Taken Solitude and Modern Man’s Games After high school, I jumped off the conveyor belt— I didn’t go to college or the military upon graduating high school, as is custom for young people in my socioeconomic class. Instead, I elected to take a “gap” period, and in doing so, “dropped the ball.” That is, I stopped playing the games I was told to play. The capitalist game, the social pyramid climb. They tasted bitter to me. Acrid, all this energy invested in the future. Like…

Tom Walker addresses a typical setting and theme of American Romanticism. As the young nation matured, the woods became symbolic of individualism, passionate self-discovery that moved past the book learning of now crowded cities. The woods changed from a threatening place of danger to life, limb and soul (just ask the folks in Salem). Man was left in the woods surrounded by nature to investigate his own being and moral makeup. Here Tom Walker faces his insatiable greed and does not learn his…

In communicating their beliefs about nature and man’s connection with the natural world, transcendental writers employ rhetoric full of personified natural elements and extended metaphors connecting the natural world to man’s own personal experiences. One of the most clear demonstrations of this technique occurs in Thoreau's “Brute Neighbors” as the author personifies the ants and the loon to equate their value to that humans. In observation of the loon, Thoreau writes, “This was his…

Valuable lessons can be learned from movements throughout history. They can help us learn about mistakes from the past and be open to ways of thought and living that may benefit the weaknesses in the way we conduct our lives today. One such weakness in today’s society is our lost track connection with the environment and world we reside in. Studying romanticism and its focus on individual psyche, nature, and emotion can gives us the tools to rebuild this estrangement. To truly understand…

The transcendental period was a very important part of modern American literature. Transcendentalism can be thought of as a philosophy that puts spirituality over materialism, that believes that people are born good and that a person can only discover God through nature. This philosophy is responsible for such authors as Nathaniel Hawthorne and Ralph Waldo Emerson. Emerson is a perfect representative of the era - he writes about nature, exploration of the inner-self and individualism. He is very…

“Henry David Thoreau devoted his energies to exploring the spiritual relationship between humanity and nature and to living by his political and social beliefs.” As said by Sam Erickson. Thoreau was a transcendentalist and is known today as one of the “Big Three” in American Literature along with Walt Whitman and Ralph Emerson. Thoreau devoted his life to explore the importance of humanity and nature. For two years Thoreau lived in a cabin he built at Walden Pond. It was here where he wrote…

What is life without risk? The two books The Scarlet Letter and The Crucible, are both set during Puritan time establishments. Nathaniel Hawthorne and Arthur Miller do a remarkable job of illustrating what the typical Puritan society is like. In the two pieces, risk is a common theme in order to illustrate how Puritan society dealt with matters in contradiction to the religion. In the Scarlet Letter Nathaniel Hawthorne portrays Hester Prynne very early in the novel as “. . . perfect elegance…

"The Yellow Wallpaper," best fits the literary style of naturalism. Naturalism is a philosophical viewpoint according to which everything arises from natural properties and causes. Characters are controlled by internal or external forces or by the environment. In "The Yellow Wallpaper," the main character is being controlled by her husband, who believes that he is right in keeping her confined for her treatment of depression. She is also being controlled by her mental state, as it is…

Jon Krakauer writes his book “Into the Wild” in response to the similarities in background that Krakauer and McCandless had. His his Author’s Note, Krakauer writes that he had an urge to write more about McCandless’ story given the “unsettling parallels” the two seemed to have with the events of their lives (ii). The author seems to see a little of himself within McCandless, a young man with admiration of the wilderness. Another reason why Krakauer wrote the book was that the American people…

Mooji states his purpose as a nondual teacher is the same as his master, Papaji, in that he simply looks to point the seeker to an area of ‘openness’, which gives them the opportunity to awaken to the Self by their own accord. He states his teachings should ‘pass over’ the one studying, and not be dwelled upon. The final ‘taste’ of what remains with us after his teachings are presented, is his self-proclaimed ‘essence’ as a master. Mooji is an incredibly charismatic individual, and presents his…