Concord, Massachusetts

Self-Reliance Rhetorical Analysis Transcendentalism was a philosophical movement that developed in the late 1820s in the Eastern region of the United States as a protest against the general state of intellectualism and spirituality. Most of the Transcendentalists became involved as well in social reform movements, especially anti-slavery and women's rights. Finding its root in the word “transcend,” Transcendentalists believed individuals could transcend to a higher plane of existence in nature.…

Ralph Waldo Emerson started his ministry as a Unitarian but soon broke away from the Unitarianism and becoming very influential with the rise of Transcendentalism. Emerson talks a lot about nature in religion and the importance of the world around. In the first selection Nature is about how nature relates to God and how people should see God though nature. In the last section Self-Reliance Emerson has some parallels to Benjamin Franklin view of religion and nature interconnected. In Nature…

What is walking? Is it an aimless way to waste time with no real destination? Do we as humans walk with a purpose or with somewhere to be? In Henry David Thoreau’s piece, Walking, he discusses the beauty of nature and how we as humans are “an inhabitant of nature, rather than a member of society. (Pg. 49)” Thoreau discloses how we as a society never are able to just get out and walk anymore. We spend so much of our lives with places to be and things to do that we never have time to walk around…

Transcendentalism was a religious and philosophical movement that developed during 1820’s in the western region of the United States. This is a very simple idea. All people have knowledge about themselves and the entire world around them that “transcends” or goes beyond what they can see. People can trust themselves to be their own authority on what is right. The people who were closely associated with this new way of thinking and looking at the world were known as the Transcendental Club. The…

Ralph Waldo Emerson, the father of transcendentalism, created a major shift in American Literature. “Emerson was a central figure in the New England Transcendentalist Movement of the 1830s and 1840s and the founder of its magazine, The Dial” (Nature). This statement shows that Emerson was the leader of the transcendental movement, and this was one of the reason that he was considered as the father of transcendentalism. Being the central figure of transcendentalist, Emerson provided many of his…

Walden by Thoreau and Ancient Futures by Norberg-Hodge are both categorized as books that describe pre-WWII simple life where industrialization has not taken place. The authors of both books appreciate human beings who live harmoniously with nature and balance their leisure and working time. On the other hand, Americans described in Schor’s books The Overworked American and The Overspent American live an entirely different so-called “good life”, which destroy nature and environment drastically.…

In the world today, people live solely based upon the rules of society. Instead of an individual having their own ideas and making their own opportunities, they become a conformist. The movie Dead Poets Society, directed by Peter Weir, is the story of an English teacher named John Keating, who teaches his students to question authority and to be their own man. The play The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail, written by Jerome Lawrence, describes how Henry Thoreau stood up to the government by refusing…

Come Away to the Water “When Nature has work to be done, she creates a genius to do it.” These words by Ralph Waldo Emerson behold transcendentalist value in the perception of nature. He describes nature as a female being, and gives her the ability to “create geniuses.” The transcendental movement emerged in the Antebellum period of America with the philosophical reform movements of the 1830s. Transcendentalists placed value on the serenity and spirituality of nature, the vitality of…

Transcendentalism and Marxism Philosophies Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “Essay on Nature,” and Terry Eagleton’s Essay on “What is Literature” both show different styles of writing and different philosophies. Emerson being a transcendentalist sought it through intuition and creativity which showed in his writing. Eagleton being a Marxist showed through his works class struggle, materialism, and empiricism. Both Marxists and transcendentalists seek an exemplary world, free of the chains of established…

Late in the 1830’s a movement began to express itself in New England. This literary movement had a strong belief in religion and philosophical beliefs. The transcendentalists believe that one should be happy in their own well doing without taking into consideration money or the popular belief of others. I see myself as transcendental in my current choice for a part time job. Yes I could be working fast food, hotel cleaning or at a grocery store but this is not for me, I choose working at a…