Transcendentalism

“There is a pleasure in the pathless woods, there is a rapture on the lonely shore, there is society, where none intrudes, by the deep sea, and music in its roar I love not man the less, but nature more.” This quote by George Gordon Byron depicts how beautiful nature is and how much he loves and admires it. Unfortunately, nature has become less respected as years have passed. Early authors of the Puritan and Romantic Era, with works including “To My Dear and Loving Husband,” by Anne Bradstreet;…

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…

"Art is art, nature is nature, you cannot improve upon it . . . Pictures should be inspired by nature, but made in the soul of the artist; it is the soul of the individual that counts." (Collections). Emily Carr was a famous painter and writer, she was the only one original female painter of the first half twentieth century. Most canadians galleries have Emily Carr’s works, which are from her famous tour called “Emily Carr: New Perspectives on a Canadian Icon” (The Canadian Encyclopedia). Emily…

Self-reliance is an essay that was written in 1841 by American transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson. The essay is written to capture and understand Emerson’s thoughts, it obtains the most complete statement of Emerson’s more popular themes noncomfomity, the need for every individual to avoid conformity and false consistency, and follow their own instincts and ideas. Emerson states “Nothing is at last sacred, but the integrity of your own mind” (Emerson). The essay focuses on Emerson’s…

In “Self-Reliance” by Ralph Waldo Emerson, he presents ideas that can still be useful to people today. Emerson speaks about the notion of how people should determine their own fate rather than permitting society to decide. Here is an example of this notion, “There is a time in every man’s education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide…” (page 93). In this quote, Emerson is saying that there comes a time in everybody’s life when they realize that by…

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…

Stieglitz believed that the movement Pictorial Photography evolved to give a voice to those who loved art and sought other that pencil or a brush medium to give expression to their ideas. He understood that the earlier attempts at pictorial photography hurt its image, and it was looked upon " as the bastard of science and art, hampered and held back by the one, denied and ridiculed by the other." As he believed it was not because of the lack of photographic images deserving to be called art,…

An quaint view on history, George Orwell’s Animal Farm was a book made to influence. Under the guise of a novella, this book’s main purpose is to bring to light a viewpoint that is a bit darker than common themes of a “happy ending” founded on the the grounds of teamwork and friendship. Rather, Orwell presents his book simply. The concept is simple enough to grasp: animals on a farm. The tyranny is easy to see: Mr. Jones and later the pigs brutally governing the masses. And the challenges are…

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…

The Immaculate Trail I embark along the trail almost every day and nature encourages me to become calmer. People pass by me every day and although not all use the trail to relax, they all use the trail in order to experience nature. Some people say that nature is good for the soul and I couldn't agree more. Nature can help people escape from the routine of regular life, whether through viewing the shimmering moon dangling in the night sky untouched by city lights or hearing the faint whistle of…