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Transcendentalism: Ralph Waldo Emerson And Henry David Thoreau

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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. He sang a controversial song entitled "When the president talks to god" which voiced America's brutally honest thoughts about George Bush's presidency. …show more content…

“Standing on the bare ground,--my head bathed by the blithe air and uplifted into infinite space,--all mean egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eyeball; I am nothing; I see all; the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part or parcel of God.” He is saying in this that he sees himself as a part of the collective and believes that he is one with nature. He exists among everything and has complete understanding of his meaning. Likewise, Oberst also had a great revelation about the meaning of his life. “We must hang up in the belfry/Where the bats and moonlight laugh/We must stare into a crystal ball/And only see the past/And into the caverns of tomorrow/With just our flashlights and our love/We must plunge, we must plunge, we must plunge/And then we'll get down there/ Way down to the very bottom of everything/And then we'll see it, we'll see it, we'll see it/Oh my mornings coming back/The whole world's waking up/This city bus is swimming past/I'm happy just because/I found out that I am really no one” (Oberst).He is saying in these final lines that he has finally found solitude in death and his purpose in life, even though it has a sarcastic

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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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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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Henry David Thoreau Was The Great Transcendentalist

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Ralph Waldo Emerson, the father of transcendentalism, was an American lecturer and poet who led the transcendentalist movement in eighteenth hundreds. Transcendentalism was a movement in which the followers believed they could become part of God if they connected with nature. Emerson and Thoreau were major advocates of transcendentalism. Henry David Thoreau was a student who learned from Emerson. Transcendentalists such as Thoreau and Emerson had many beliefs which included people should follow their own intuitions even if it differs from those around them.

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Transcendentalism: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau

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