Book of Concord

Emerson, R. W., & Thoreau, H. D. (1994). Nature walking. Beacon Press. Context John Elder the editor of Nature Walking tells us in the introduction that even though other nature writers developed the tradition in many ways, as new scientific vistas have opened and as they have sunk their own roots in different regions of the country. Yet, Nature and Walking remain crucial points of departure – texts to which, as frequent echoes of their language testify, our literature of nature continually…

Transcendentalism, Henry Thoreau was undoubtedly a genius of his time. Moreover, his endowments to the improvement of the world were exceedingly significant, such as his contribution to Abolitionism or his prominent work of literature called “Walden”. In this book, through descriptive writing Thoreau managed to deliver what he was seeing in the form of personal daily musings from his journal. He recorded his observations and wrote about the considerable influence of nature on people and…

removing ourselves from the company of other humans? Thoreau, for one, wanted to answer this same exact question, and he conducted an experiment purely based on his own experience alongside Mother Nature for two years and two months at Walden Pond near Concord, Massachusetts. Through his experiment, Thoreau endeavored to escape the distractions and emotional clutters of society in order to get in touch with his inner self in and to find out what living really meant. As Thoreau articulates, “I…

There are many pieces of literature and media that embody the idea of transcendentalism and anti-transcendentalism. In this quarter, we have read Bartleby the Scrivener by Herman Melville, “Self-Reliance” by Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Walden by Henry David Thoreau. We have also watched the films Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and Fight Club, all of which refers to transcendentalism and anti-transcendentalism in some way or another. Transcendentalism is the belief that knowledge of reality is derived…

Natural will explains to a person how to live under the guidelines given to each person at birth from nature. Every person person, no matter religion, race, ethnicity, is held to the same standards of living and being as stated in the Golden Rule. The Golden Rule states that you should treat others as you would want to be treated. Natural will and natural law are essentially that if you strip it down to the bare bones. In this essay, six characters will be explored through each of their…

“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…

“The Speech of Polly Baker” by Benjamin Franklin is a leading example of how American writers challenged notions of social injustice and attempted to bring social change. Franklin writes this fictional story about a woman being convicted for giving birth to an illegitimate child and criticizes the laws that punish them. Polly Baker has been convicted of this same crime four times previously but each time, argues that she is not the only one responsible for this transgression. Women are…

Transcendentalism is described a person who finds satisfaction in solitude and nature. It was a nineteenth century movement in which mean people joined. In the book Into the Wild, by Jon Krakauer, Chris McCandless is a transcendentalist, from the modern age, which means he enjoys the simplicity of life and deliberate living or living life with intentions. McCandless goes into the wild with the aspiration of finding himself through nature. In the eyes of a transcendentalist, they believe that…

Approximately two centuries have elapsed since the dissipation of a movement that completely transformed American culture. However, even after such prolonged time the influences scarred into the culture of American society from the Transcendentalist Movement still beam lively. The art of the Transcendentalists was an inclination towards the exploration and reforming of current beliefs of that era on spiritualism, literacy, and philosophy. “A religious, philosophical, and literary movement,…

"Transcending the Norm, Throughout Time" Society is always about conforming. To "fit in", there is a certain way one must dress, a particular activity one must enjoy doing, and ways one must act. Society is obsessed with normality and conforming to what everyone else is doing. Transcendentalism is a movement that seeks to do what the normal society considers shocking: break the mold. This movement has been going strong since the early 1800 's, and continues in some form to this…