Ralph Waldo Emerson Influences

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Ralph Waldo Emerson is the true driving force behind the American Transcendentalism Movement. The author I am choosing to study is Ralph Waldo Emerson. He was an American poet with a special gift, because of his unwillingness to not be a part of the crowd and his mindset on how he viewed the world. Ralph Waldo Emerson was one of the most influential thinkers of the 19th century, and his ideas continue to be influential today. He was a key figure in the Transcendentalist movement, and his writings helped to define the movement's core beliefs.

Born on May 25, 1803, an American poet who inspired a movement was born. Emerson grew up in a sheltered environment and was the son of a Unitarian Pastor. Emerson's main cultural influence initially, …show more content…

(Moran,2) The start of his career, he started as a school teacher at a young girl's school. Later, Emerson attended Harvard Divinity School, where he pursued his studies to become a minister and engaged in contentious debates about the translations of Buddhist and Hindu poetry. These uncommon influences, among many others, would have a big impact on Emerson's thinking; by the time he was 26 and took over as the pastor of a church in Boston, he was beginning to doubt the Christian faith he had been nurtured with. During this time, Emerson also married Ellen, his first wife, who passed away from tuberculosis two years later. After his wife's death, Emerson left the church in 1832 and traveled through Europe for the following three years writing and learning. He met several well-known authors during these years of wandering, including Thomas Carlyle, William Wordsworth, and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. He decided to train as a "naturalist." This was the start of his Transdenciltiasim career. He met William Wordsworth on a brief visit to Britain, had the opportunity to interview Coleridge in Highgate, and spent twenty-four …show more content…

It was defined by a stress on independence, self-reliance, and the ability of the person to determine his or her destiny as well as a belief in the inherent goodness of people and nature. Transcendentalists held that through intuition and imagination, one may surpass, or go beyond, the limitations of reason and encounter a greater spiritual reality. They rebelled against the existing social and religious standards of the day and aspired to establish a fresh, more intuitive, and spiritual way of living. American literature and society were greatly influenced(Turner,4) Ralph Waldo Emerson was included in the Transcendentalism movement for his new ideas and writings. He rejected the traditional religious and social norms of his time. He sought to create a new spiritual way of life. Emerson was the publisher of The Dial, a transcendentalist magazine, and a key figure in the New England Transcendentalist Movement of the 1830s and 1840s. The world has a soul, and each person's soul is the same as the world's soul, according to Transcendentalism, which is also at the core of Emerson's philosophy. Emerson upheld the idea that nature and man are inseparable and promoted a philosophy of optimism, self-reliance, mysticism, and the nearness of a deity whose influence could be felt throughout all of