Ralph H. Baer

Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau were two writers during the 1800s. These two writers had similarities including their beliefs, but they did share some differences regarding their writings and upbringings in life. Ralph Waldo Emerson was considered one of the most important essay writers of this time period. He focused his writings on individualism and self-reliance. He was born in a distinguished family that included clergymen. He was well educated and a graduate from Harvard…

In comparing two great writers, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Ralph Waldo Emerson, we see both shared and unique traits. Though coming from different movements, both writers share similar ideas in their works. Hawthorne led the Romantic movement and, more specifically, Dark romanticism, while Emerson contributed to Transcendentalism. Romanticism includes that nature should be revered, cherished, and studied to its fullest capacity. The ultimate understanding and self-guidance is to be found in nature.…

As Henry David Thoreau, a famous figure in transcendentalism, said, “Live your beliefs and you can turn the world around.” Transcendentalism is a philosophical movement which targets human relations and decisions in order to lead to a simple and more enjoyable life. The key principles of transcendentalism are nonconformity, self-reliance, free thought, confidence, and importance of nature. Transcendentalism and its principles have had a large influence on society and is very significant to the…

The American Voice What is the American Voice? Today many people have different views of what is the American voice. For example some people say the American voice is that about corruption and tyranny. As others suggest the voice is hardworking and patriotic. Throughout history there are those great people who establish identity of the things we know today. Like Patrick Henry,Walt Whitman, Langston Hughes,and Barack Obama all establish parts of the true American voice. They believe the voice is…

Thoreau in his essay “Walking” introduces the idea of wildness. This wildness is not the same as the wilderness that has become the default for many individuals. In this essay I will attempt to identify Thoreau’s definition of wildness. Thoreau identifies the wildness as the West (609). In one way this is the geographical west, the area currently occupied by states such as Kansas, Colorado, and Montana. Opposite to the west is the east geographically the east is England and France. Thoreau is…

Walt Whitman is widely recognized as one of America’s leading nature poets. His wide-ranging description of the “voluptuous coolbreathed earth” (“Song of Myself” line 439) in his lyrical works suggests both the poet’s respect for the natural world and his transcendentalist belief in the world’s unity in diversity. Whitman comes to a more complete and fulfilling grasp of his humanity through the various poetic discourses evident in his poetry. The first concerns a discourse between the internal…

“Give me a wildness whose glance no civilization can endure…” Henry David Thoreau (page 400). When Thoreau was a child he rarely followed directions. He was independent and strong-willed. Thoreau went to Harvard. After college Thoreau got a teaching job. Due to corporal punishment he had to quit. Henry opened his own school in Concord with his brother. The school was successful but because John, Henry’s brother, became ill they had to close the school (page 377). Thoreau often uses the word…

The Elliot Conference was filled to the brim with scholars and thinkers, alike. Each one of them came with intriguing points of view on some of the greatest, and most historic, writers of our time. The theme for this conference was 1776. The importance of that year to the world, not just America. In the two days of the conference, students and professors critiqued and interpreted works of several different writer’s works. They presented essays that gave the listeners a glimpse into the minds of…

You Talkin To Me? (read with a NYC accent) Somehow, someway, before I was born, before my existence was even a concept, before fate found it’s stepping stone, Walt Whitman was thinking of me. He was dreaming of all of us; the people he would never meet, the people who may never know his name, the people of the past, present, and future. Few evidence can be found that Whitman had any clairvoyant powers, yet he seemed to know what to look for, when thinking, dreaming, and wishing for the future…

Throughout Henry David Thoreau’s “Where I Lived, and What I Lived For,” Thoreau uses an extended metaphor to critique society, and express his philosophy of how and why people should live. When he says, “We do not ride on the railroad; it rides upon us. Did you ever think what those sleepers are that underlie the railroad? Each one is a man, an Irishman, or a Yankee man. The rails are laid on them, and they are covered with sand, and the cars run smoothly over them. They are sound sleepers, I…