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More handpicked essays just for you.
Transcendentalism in the modern world
Transcendentalism theory
The influence of transcendentalism
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Basketball fans come from all walks of life flocking to their television sets as the game flashes on the screen. They ignore real life for those two hours to bask in the glory of their favorite players. LeBron James being the basketball superstar he is knows his audience and uses that to his advantage while writing his article for sports illustrated. LeBron used syntax and diction specific to his fan base to capture attention and create a believable piece of writing. James’ ego shines through his enticing words in the conclusion of his writing.
You may ask why it is important to compare the ideas and styles of different texts. I believe that it is important to see how other people view things. Writing is an easy way for people to say how they see things and how they think things will be for our future. Talking about nature, technology, and the author 's tone are just a few way that the style can be different. Transcendentalist emphasize a person’s individual freedoms and responsibilities, their connection to nature, and their spirituality.
He does not condone the idea of being eremitic, rather he believes that solitude allows people to discover their own principles and virtues. Thus, McCandless seemed to serve as the manifestation of Emerson’s self-reliance. He subjected himself to solitude, not because of his distaste of people, but to be entirely focused on his search for himself without the distraction of others. He acted in a completely selfish manner, abandoning his family to worry so that he could find himself and the virtues he wanted to represent. Despite this, there is something admirable in his determination to fulfill his goals and to push his limits.
Revival meetings often took place which helped unify the people through shared beliefs and gave opportunities for potential conversions for non-believers (Palmer). As a result of the Awakening, a strong desire to reform the nation arose. The Second Great Awakening saw the emergence of Transcendentalism, a philosophical movement that emphasised the dignity of the individual and the celebration of nature and life. Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau are two well known transcendentalist authors who significantly influenced and encouraged non-conformity and for people to follow their own beliefs.
In the quote I gathered that Emerson was trying to emphasize that nature has the ability to generate happiness, just like a human being can. Nature can be just a charmful as an average man. This quote most definitely illustrates how there is strong but covert connection among man and nature. Nature, by essayist, Ralph Waldo Emerson is an insightful paper that successfully utilizes the personification of nature to accentuate the connection of it to a human.
In Emerson's views, people should “not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail”(citation). Based on Emerson’s thoughts, people should not follow the crowd, but instead live their lives and leave their mark on the Earth. Emerson thoughts come from a philosophical movement of the nineteenth century called transcendentalism. Transcendentalism focuses on religious renewal, literary innovation, and social transformation (encyclopedia.com). Because of their belief that God exists in everyone and nature, and that knowledge comes from individual intuition, led to the highlight of individualism, self-reliance, and breaking free from traditions(citation).
It could be argued that the sun symbolizes patience. Everyone waits in seven years of rain just for a single hour of sun. The repetition of the sun and the rain comes up a lot. It makes the point that it is a big part of their lives. Metaphors, emotions and repetition are used to show that the sun represents hope.
Transcendentalist writers were focused on the belief of the divinity of the individual soul, the inner voice, (Crawford, Kern & Needleman, 1961) to overcome social stereotypes and to avoid conformity. It is highlighted the importance to return to nature to enhance the quality of humans beings by living simply since being apart of common social rules is the only way to be in communion with nature’s wisdom. Those transcendental characteristics could be seen in Emerson’s ¨self-reliance¨ or Thoreau’s ¨Walden ¨ bearing in mind that although, Emerson’s ¨Self-reliance¨ adheres more descriptive examples to illustrate metaphors and Thoreau’s ¨Where I lived and what I lived for¨ introduces metaphors creating much more imagery, both make a critique of the modern individual using
People consider Emerson the “father of Transcendentalism”. He believed that man would thrive if he trusted himself. Man was inherently good and could do no wrong. In Emerson’s “Nature”, a work about Emerson’s view on nature, he writes: “We must trust the perfection of the creation so far, as to believe that whatever curiosity the order of things has awakened in our minds, the order of things can satisfy” (Emerson Par 2). Man did not need to rely on society, or entangle himself in the patterns of the world; man’s intuition would be enough for his success.
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.
Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau both fond nature to be essential to being a whole person: spiritually and emotionally. Emerson saw nature’s effect on people and their thoughts, whereas Thoreau saw the deliberateness of nature and thought that if people could seize the same decisiveness that they would have more to enjoy in life. Both authors believed that humans needed to enjoy nature to be one with the universal being that is the basis of Transcendentalism. Emerson wrote “When we speak of nature in this manner, we have a distinct but most poetical sense in the mind.” (Nature 693) Emerson was saying that nature is similar to poetry for the mind, in that it is relaxing and wholesome.
Nature is a beautiful component of planet earth which most of us are fortunate to experience; Ralph Waldo Emerson writes about his passion towards the great outdoors in a passage called Nature. Emerson employs metaphors and analogies to portray his emotions towards nature. Emerson begins by writing, “Our age is retrospective. It builds the sepulchres of the fathers.” , this is a metaphor for how we think; all our knowledge is based on what is recorded in the olden days and a majority of our experiences are vicarious instead of firsthand encounters.
According to the book, American Transcendentalism: a history, Transcendentalism advocates this internal knowledge as “present in each individual […] which allows one to distinguish between right and wrong, good and bad, God and Satan, and it supersedes any outward laws or injunctions” (168). Transcendentalism, therefore, holds that there is a congenital element embedded within people that allows them to discern truth and morality in the world, with a high degree of certainty, similar to that which empirical evidence offers. According to the Oxford Handbook of Transcendentalism, Emerson argues that “humankind was ever
Things can be seen different in many perspectives. It can be interpreted in ways others can’t see. But in order to regulate and adjust our lives, to show the meaning of what we see, we need the solitude to consolidate our thoughts and see things that were hidden in the first place. In “Nature,” Ralph Waldo Emerson applies rhetorical strategies for instance the imagery of unity and the allusion of God to experience the nature in solitude. Emerson starts off his piece with imagery of the unity between man and nature.
Transcendentalism, a philosophical and social movement, demonstrated how divinity spreads through all nature and humanity. One of the main ideals of transcendentalism, living simply and independently, define as the principle. In matters of financial and interpersonal relations, independence projects as more valuable than neediness. Henry david Thoreau elaborates on these transcendentalist ideals when he travels into the woods and writes an essay.