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.
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
Those who want the world to change will vocalize their opinion for it. Whether it be a politician, a dictator, or a human-rights activist, those who speak for what they wish have more of a chance to alter the world's course than those who say nothing at all. As the popular saying goes, "You have no chance of winning the lottery you didn't enter." Among these famous speakers, there is the trio of transcendentalist thinkers: Emerson, Thoreau, and Whitman. While each of these three poets have a particular style, one in particular lead the path to a more free America and Earth.
In this essay Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau shares a lot of transparency beliefs throughout Jon Krakauer. They don't share all of them, but some. They both have write many stories and books. They both believe in self-reliance and being in touch with nature. I think they share a lot in common about transcendental beliefs.
As I walked into the vicinity of the woods, I looked behind me and into the distance before I entered. I stared at the stormy, low lying, smoky clouds that blanketed the sun and prevented its light from creeping through. The baby blue sky and the ray of light that poked out from the edges of the clouds lit up the day. The openness of the surroundings that laid outside the woods became absorbed into my mind and I began to think. I realized that there is so much more out there in the world and the universe.
Henry David Thoreau was a renowned author and philosopher of the 1800’s who believed that people who have materialistic values reveal a lack of spiritual self-reliance. In today’s world, people depend on mostly technology and other materialistic things. Technology is how many people communicate, secure their finances, and even work. Times have evolved and Thoreau’s belief is no longer one that can be supported one hundred percent. However, Thoreau’s idea is partially appropriate when describing those who depend upon technology for almost everything.
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
Thoreau was best known for his philosophical work- Walden. As far as his philosophies went, Thoreau was an avid transcendentalist, meaning he generally believed in a natural altruism within the individual, making the church and state mostly unneeded. These beliefs lead him to vocalize his opinions about unrest in the government. He believed the people should strive to overtake an unjust governmental body, so much so that he was sometimes considered an anarchist, though this doesn't seem to be the case. Thoreau believed in a simple manner of living and encouraged reflection upon oneself and upon nature, which he also wrote about in a rather romanticized style (he was also a poet and author).
Transcendentalism Transcendentalism is a philosophy by Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau which focuses on human rights and society’s negative impact on individuals. Transcendental beliefs are still found today in the modern world, whether people are aware of it or not. When reviewing any song or current movie, it is hard not to find these messages within them. Local musician Conor Oberst often sings about his dissatisfactions with society, which reflect many transcendental ideas. In fact, in 2008 Oberst even performed at rallies for our current president Barack Obama.
Ralph Waldo Emerson began the Transcendentalist Movement, inspiring several writers, including Henry David Thoreau. Transcendentalism stresses the importance of society, whether society shapes or corrupts an individual. In Resistance To Civil Government the quote, “Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also prison” coincides with the importance of society, and in this instance, corrupting individuals by imprisoning unjustly. Transcendentalism stresses the value of a person’s mind rather than the value of material things. According to Transcendentalism, self-trust and self-reliance are essential parts of living.
A few years ago, during a road trip with my family throughout the Northeast, we visited a place called Walden Pond. We hiked on a trail in the beautiful woods of Concord, Massachusetts. A large, brown sign marked the site of Henry David Thoreau’s cabin. It was inscribed with a line from the book Walden, which Thoreau wrote while living there: “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.” During a different road trip with my family, we stopped for a spontaneous hike in the woods.
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”).
The Transcendentalist Movement was known as a religious, philosophical, and liberty movement that came to be in the middle of the nineteenth century (Milne 836-858).Contrary to popular belief, the transcendentalist movement began as an "unorganized" movement, a group of Unitarian ministers sought out to break from the chains of "cliché cultural pieties" at the time. Instead they favored a "religious" experience of individualism and natural divinity. While it is unknown exactly during what years of the nineteenth century, critics believed it flourished somewhere between 1836 and 1846 lasting about decade. Surprisingly some of the works weren't published till the late 1850's (Whelan 799-802). The followers of transcendentalism drew inspiration
During the time that the Age of Reason died off, the thoughts and beliefs of Romanticism were on the rise. This movement began to take off so heavily that many began to want to dig deeper into these thoughts and beliefs. Many of the influential Romantics such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Henry David Thoreau, and others wrote many important works of literature that would be the foundation of what would become known as Transcendentalism. Some of the characteristics of this Transcendentalist movement are the belief that humans are born with infinite potential, that one can transcend the physical world, and that one must be in communion with Nature to be fully whole. One of the famous actors mentioned before, Henry David Thoreau, wrote
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.
