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Henry David Thoreau's Extreme Transcendentalism

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To live deliberately is for a person to live to the full potential of the life they have been given. Thoreau believed to live was to discover the simplistics of life, he had moved to the woods for two years to experience his own definition of a “real life” opportunity before his death. Thoreau demonstrated his transcendentalistic ideas through many things but this will focus more on his essay Walden. “An honest man has hardly need to count more than his ten fingers, or in extreme cases he may add his ten toes, and lump the rest.” (Thoreau) Henry David Thoreau was an extreme transcendentalist. To simplify the quote, a true and honest man does not need large numbers, for he is too humble to desire more than that. Many opinions can be created
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After reading Krakauer’s Into the Wild and Henry David Thoreau’s exerts from Walden, we can see a deep connection between Christopher McCandless and Thoreau’s transcendental beliefs. Both Chris McCandless and Thoreau show transcendentalism in their actions of self-wisdom, differences, and liberation. Chris McCandless life choices in Into the wild reflect the transcendental beliefs of Thoreau’s Walden. The first transcendental belief of McCandless is that he marches to the beat of a different drummer.

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In this essay I am explaining how the four authors: Michael Donovan, Emerson, Thoreau, and Krakauer’s transcendental beliefs are similar. To me transcendental means your own belief and the way you see life. Michael, author of “It’s All-On-Me” says in his poem, “looks like it's time to up and start mounting a game-plan attack” he is saying everything is going wrong and needs a plan to make it all better again so Michael is going to find the best way for himself to feel better. Michael Donovan is very similar in a way with these authors, they are very independent and kind of stubborn in a way that these differences make them alike. Ralph Emerson, a very independent man who needs nobody but himself, he believes in rights as well as his

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In the 19th and 20th century transcendentalism was a new and exciting topic that caused tremendous controversy. In the novel Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, Chris McCandless was a man with a very unique character. In more detailed words Chris McCandless was a transcendentalist. His actions and moods played a big part in his life, from beginning to end. He was a transcendentalist because of his self-reliance, confidence and non-conformity.

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According to transcendentalists like Emerson, a person who follows intuition and remains faithful to personal vision will become a more moral, idealistic individual. For many of Emerson's contemporaries, including Henry David Thoreau and Amos Bronson Alcott, such a course of action resulted in an idealism that formed the basis for their actions, especially actions that undertook to critique and change what was perceived as evil in society. For example, Thoreau went to jail rather than pay taxes to support America's involvement in the Mexican War. Transcendentalism also provided one major philosophical foundation for the abolition of slavery. However, while individuals such as Emerson combined transcendentalism with spirituality, the essentially

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Henry David Thoreau is known as one of the most relevant transcendentalist authors in America, not only thanks to his work as an author but also his ideology and activism as a normal individual. His transcendentalist way of both thinking and living was not only influenced by the fact that he lived in Concord, the cradle of transcendentalism in the US, but also by being in close touch with other great transcendentalists such as Bronson Alcott or Ralph Waldo Emerson. The latter one was probably the most influential on Thoreau’s development as a true transcendentalist, since Thoreau actually put into practice Emerson’s thought that in order to get to know who oneself truly is, you have to focus on Nature and devote yourself to it; and he captured his experience in the wonderfully descriptive and spiritual book Walden. Thoreau’s approach to transcendentalism, as compared to other authors and thinkers

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There were multiple reasons Americans developed a greater appreciation for wilderness the first being the conceptual ideas of the Transcendentalist, and people the Henry David Thoreau pushing for a balance between civilization and wilderness. Thoreau saw the wilderness as a source of vigor, inspiration, and strength but after visiting the wilderness also grew an appreciation for civilization itself (Nash 2014). Thoreau was a main leader in the intellectual revolution that would begin investing in the “wilderness with attractive rather than repulsive qualities” (Nash 2014) Another reason Americans developed a greater appreciation for wilderness is the recognition of the fact that with the westward expansion individuals noticed that indifference

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The great transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau was an avid believer in the idea that simplicity is one of the keys to happiness. Over the last few days I have combed, piece by piece, through a large portion of room in order to organize everything, and hopefully de-clutter in the process. I’ve done this in the hopes that I will not only begin to understand Thoreau’s world-view, but also learn something about my own views. For me, sorting is a long process, full of hard decisions about some of the smallest things.

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When looking at the transcendentalist movement, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau would be the first names usually associated with this term. However, even in the years after, there were still individuals practicing transcendental concepts. Civil rights leaders Mohandas K. Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. are individuals who reflected similar ideals of transcendentalist thought. Not only did Thoreau greatly influence them, but both of these leaders are significantly relevant to the idea of transcendentalism with their nonviolent actions and concepts of logic and reason.

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Henry David Thoreau was a transcendentalist of the 19th century with very simplistic beliefs. He wanted the people to rethink their own lives in a creative way and to always be questioning. In all, he wanted them to always be searching for a greater meaning in life. "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. "

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Henry David Thoreau is one of the primary promoters of the transcendentalist movement and has been inspiring people to take on the transcendentalist lifestyle ever since the mid 1800’s. Mccandless was an admirer of Henry’s philosophy but he wasn’t as fully immersed in his work and ideals as Thoreau was to his own. His intentions were not as closely aligned to the movement as Thoreau’s and the difference between these icons are clearly visible. Self reliance is one of the most significant components of the transcendentalism movement that Henry David Thoreau contributed to in his literary career. “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.” - (taken from Henry David Thoreau’s “Walden”).

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American currencies, specifically coins, have two sides: a head and a tail. The head and tail are different, yet they are still part of the same coin. Two American authors, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Nathaniel Hawthorne, represent two sides of the same coin: Transcendentalism. Transcendentalism swept through America as a new worldview in the 1900’s. Transcendentalism is a philosophy that asserts the primacy of the spiritual and transcendental over the material, that deals with aspects of nature.

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Transcendentalism is the belief that man is inherently good, is an independent thinker, and goes out into nature to get in touch with himself. Generally, man has good intentions and intends no harm unto others. In addition, man does not need society to give him and develop his thoughts, as he already has them within. To help bring out these already installed beliefs, man has the desire to go out into nature to get in touch with himself and find deeper notions within. In Ralph Waldo Emerson’s writings “Self Reliance” and “American Scholar”, he writes about how being a true individual means that one must have his own beliefs, and not copy someone else’s ideas.

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What is transcendentalism? Transcendentalism is a philosophy that people are in tune with themselves and have an understanding of the world around them. They believe they are the rulers of themselves, and should not look to Europeans for ideas of how to live. It is not based on logic, but comes from their own imaginings.

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Transcendentalism is a philosophy in which thought and spirit is more real than things in the real world. This philosophy was incredibly popular in early American times. It was only natural that authors and poets of the time expressed the concept in their work. Three men however, were especially well known. Out of them were Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Walt Whitman.

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Thoreau emphasizes living simply by reducing the excess in our live to only the bare essentials, and relying on oneself to do so. Thoreau claims that the only way to

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