The Man Who Saw It All Analysis

‘The Man Who Saw It All’ “Disobedience is the foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves.” These quotes make people think and pull up the deepest thoughts that are hidden in our hearts and thoughts. These quotes are from Henry David Thoreau. He was an American author, poet, philosopher, abolitionist, naturalist, leading transcendentalist, tax resister, surveyor, and a historian who is remembered for his philosophical and naturalistic writings. July 12, 1817, in Concord, Massachusetts, Henry David Thoreau was born into a New England family. Thoreau was an outstanding student in school which eventually led him to study at Harvard College from 1833 to 1837. After graduating, he agonized over what to do next. Ultimately, he joined the faculty of the Concord Public School for a short time and opened a grammar school in Concord in 1838 called Concord Academy with his brother

Emerson was a writer and fellow Concord resident. Through Emerson, Thoreau became exposed to transcendentalism, a philosophy asserting the existence of an ideal spiritual reality that transcends the empirical and scientific and is knowable through intuition (American). Not only did Emerson introduce transcendentalism to Thoreau but helped by advising him and introducing him to a group of local writers and thinkers who were the transcendental movement’s leading figures like Bronson Alcott and Margaret Fuller. Emerson was like a mentor to Thoreau and supported him in many ways. He encouraged Thoreau to start writing literary works and helped Thoreau to publish his first work ‘Aulus Persius Flaccus’ in The Dial in 1840. The Dial was a famous transcendentalist magazine that was published intermittently from 1840 to 1929 by the members of the Hedge Club. Thoreau became a philosopher of nature and its relation to the human condition. Emerson’s influence led Thoreau to follow transcendentalism in his early years as a