Book of Concord

Ralph Waldo Emerson was a smart man. He's said a lot of things one can't help but to agree with and he words things beautifully. One of the things he wants to get across to his audience that really, really needs to be done more often in literature: his nonconformist views. I've never read anything I agree with more on this planet than his essay Self-Reliance. To say he want's to spread his nonconformist ideals is to sum up everything in the whole passage. To trust your instinct is to refuse to…

relationship between revelations of the sciences and evidence of the divine found in nature. Henry David Thoreau is well-known for being an American philosopher, poet, and environmental scientist during the nineteenth century. (Furtak, 2017) He was born in Concord, Massachusetts in 1817, and spent most of his…

All literature figures play a key role to shape the history of the world; within American literature, authors and poets alike create unique stories of fiction and non-fiction novels. Some are easy to read but others will take time to understand, depending on the level of reading that the reader carries. American literature within history should be cherished to everyone to instill the spirit and tradition passing to the next generation. “The Masque of the Red Death” was written by one of the…

Nature can change the way you think of life. Walden and Call of the Wild are both about nature. Both books explore journeys into wilderness and what you can find. Walden shows how you can find what is important in live, and Call of the Wild shows how you can find your true self. Henry David Thoreau is unlike the characters in Call of the Wild in their self reliance, their view of possessions, and their reasons for going to the wilderness. Henry David Thoreau believes that isolation is the best…

When, in the mid-1800s, Transcendentalism became prominent, so too did the subject of nature. It was believed that nature was a freeing force, a refuge for the human soul. It was in nature, that humans could discover their true selves. Henry David Thoreau in particular believed in the wonders of nature and would isolate himself at Walden Pond for two years of his life. More than a century later, Thomas Merton would pursue the idea of solitude and importance of nature from his hermitage in…

In Emerson’s essay “Nature”, Emerson looks beyond the simple visuals of the woods and explores how his connection with Nature grants him enhanced perception of his existence, and how he himself is encompassed and uplifted by the existence that is Nature. Emerson While remembering his transcendental walk through the forest, Emerson writes, “There I feel that nothing can befall me in life, — no disgrace, no calamity, (leaving me my eyes,) which Nature cannot repair.”(Emerson’s “Nature”) Emerson…

The transcendentalism movement impacted American culture, society, and literature because it encouraged Americans to transcend society's assumptions and create a personal, continuous relationship with spirituality and nature. The club started among a small group of intellectuals who were reacting against the orthodoxy of Calvinism and the rationalism of the Unitarian Church. Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau organized the transcendental club. Other important members of the club were F.…

beliefs he spread throughout the book. Some of the beliefs represented in the book are individualism and connecting with nature. These are both integral parts in the representation of transcendentalism and is why Walden is so important to our modern day lives. We should all strive to be somewhat transcendentalistic. Overall, Walden is a very difficult, yet rewarding piece of literature that is a critical part to the curriculum of all high school students. It is an old book but it has so much to…

I want to present two people, Henry David Thoreau and a vegan. Thoreau was an American Romantic who decided to go to the woods to live off the land, so he spent a year at Walden Pond hoeing beans and watching the water to show that anyone can sustain themselves on a small budget and nature while a vegan abstains from consuming any animal products. What do they have in common? Stereotypically, vegans are outspoken and obnoxious, and for some, Thoreau is annoying and irrelevant. Yet they share a…

Ralph Waldo Emerson, a 19th century poet, shook the country with his eye-catching lectures and philosophical beliefs. In his essay, “Self-Reliance,” he uses sundry figures of speech to impart his beliefs to his readers. To come to the point, Emerson assertsthat you can choose your path in life and make the best out of it. To begin with, Emerson’s ways of using figures of speech is complicated but expressive. Some of the figures of speech I detected were metaphors and personifications.…