Transcendentalism is a school of thought that began in the early 19th century and advocates spiritual, intuitive thinking over materialistic, scientific thinking. 2 stories that show transcendentalism in them are Nature by Ralph Waldo Emerson and Earthbound on solid ground by Bell Hooks. When people spend time in the natural environment, they learn about their connectedness to the world.
Nature by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Nature is the material world that has remained unchanged by man. Nature and man will combine to create art. This connects to the theme because nature is teaching us something and connecting us more and more. They are more at ease in the wild and natural environment than in the village as Emerson reveals, “In the wilderness, I find something more dear and connate than in streets or villages” (Emerson 2). This shows that they feel more comfortable in the wilderness than in their village, the landscape is a beauty. They
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You and nature need to be connected in some way to stop your real world problems. She was taught early on in life that nature is very powerful which can be shown in this quote, “I was taught by farmers that wilderness land, the untamed environment, can give life and it can take life” (Hooks 67). Hooks is telling us about her childhood and about the power nature holds. This relates because as she spends more time as a child in nature she is realizing more about the world and what nature can do and all the power it really holds. Black people understand whites have more power but as Hooks explains, “They could not control nature or divine spirit” (Hooks 69). Even though white people have more power they could not control nature or spirits. No one could walk into nature and tell them to do something nor tell a spirit to do something; it's more powerful than