Louisa May Alcott And Emerson Comparison

“There is a time in every man’s education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil” -Ralph Waldo Emerson in Self Reliance. Ralph Waldo Emerson was a transcendentalist. Transcendentalism is a philosophical movement that originated in the 19th century and was primarily influenced by Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. Transcendentalists’ main beliefs are: self-reliance is essential to one’s life, nature is divine, every person should have an optimistic outlook, and humanity needs to adhere to their personal morals and beliefs. In today’s world we still see a multitude of the beliefs of transcendentalism.

Ralph Waldo Emerson is a transcendentalist in my eyes because of his consistent promotion of free thought, personal insight, and individuality. Transcendentalism is the combination of the beliefs of nonconformity, self-reliance, free thought, confidence, and importance of nature. When I looked further into its meaning I came to realize it encompasses the growth and renewal of the individual, revolt against conformity, and basically promotes all sorts of reformation. Transcendentalism is really just a collection of eclectic ideas about literature, philosophy, religion, social reform, and the generalizations on culture. It is the kind of concept that exists on a sliding scale because it has different meanings for each person who interprets it. I feel like Emerson really advocates many of these ideas and thoughts throughout all of his works, he speaks about individuality, promoting intuition as a sign of higher thinking. Emerson constantly reinforced that free thought was an advantage that not everyone was able to use for themselves, for example he says "A great soul will be strong to live, as well as strong to think." (1862). This is his way of expressing that there is power and privilege in those that can and will think for themselves, that they have the upper hand in comparison to those who just fall in line with what society wants. Overall he seems to be a transcendentalist author considering how the many elements of the concept are constantly reiterated throughout every

Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson, central figures of Transcendentalism, expressed their beliefs through works such as “American Scholar” and “Into the Woods” in the nineteenth century. They believed that one must be in simplicity, solitude, and away from technology to appreciate the beauty of nature, which is essential for a better spiritual understanding of oneself. Transcendentalism, which focuses on spiritual interactions with nature, is relevant in today’s hectic life with temptations of materialistic goods and burdens of technology. The retreat that Webb offers every year is a good example of how Transcendentalism shapes students to have spiritual richness and mental strength. On retreats, students go off campus with bare necessities for three days to camp sites in nature to reflect and appreciate the beauty of the outdoors. Viewed through the lens of Transcendentalism, retreats allow students to prepare for a new and busy school year to come by helping them to realize their own goals, to get rid of distractions of technology, to get inspired by nature for a better understanding of themselves, and to enjoy a moment of solitude to truly reflect on the deeper meanings of life.

Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote, “the sky is the daily bread of the eyes.” Emerson was a transcendentalist, transcendentalism came with a deep connection with nature from which this quote seems to be inspired. It can also be inferred that this quote has connections with the lord’s prayer, as Emerson was very religious. The lord’s prayer even states, “give us this day our daily bread” showing that God gave us necessities like food. By restating this in his essays, Emerson connects the sky with the daily food source by its beauty, and that we can feast upon what he believed the Lord had created for us in nature. Personally i am not all that religious and i don’t share the same transcendentalist beliefs with Emerson, but i wholeheartedly agree with his outlook on the sky as a feast of sorts.

Transcendentalism was what Emerson and Thoreau touched most with their writings. They took their words, and created something new that many people would later follow. Transcendentalism is the nature of being one with yourself, and learning to better yourself through nature, and self knowledge. The quote from above is an example of what the two figures preached. Emerson believed that consistency of thought was foolished, and he highlighted the fact that having a consistent mind was mindless. He believed people should have an open mind, and be able to look at things in different perspectives.

There are some things about life that we cannot explain, there are other things in life that are just plain obvious. We cannot explain why people die like Robin Williams, and then there is living to the fullest like Emma Watson. Both of these celebrities exemplify the transcendentalist beliefs of Ralph Waldo Emerson and David Henry Thoreau. Although Emerson and Thoreau lived more than a century ago, their thoughts are still present today in people such as Robin Williams and Emma Watson.

Every day we think about what we do and what others do, what’s right from wrong what we want and what others want we usually forget what we want for our self’s.

Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote “The Poet” in order to explore the role of a poet in modern day society. Educated at Harvard University, Emerson was a transcendentalist, meaning that he believed a higher truth beyond the physical reality experienced in everyday life. This carries on in his writing, as he frequently speaks of the connecting physical and metaphysical world. He describes the modern poet as a voice box for the people, who connect the physical and metaphysical aspects of life into prose for the common man. The modern poet is providing a service to the layman by translating symbols and spreading the transcendentalism movement. These actions in many ways mirror the role of the media currently, as they seek the truth for the people. The media today is a collective means of informing citizens of the state of the world in real time. This service has become especially vital as the general public have gotten more involved in politics and social issues with the spread of technology. The media is the last line of defense for holding public figures accountable and has recently become far more effective due to the ease of distribution of news with technology. The media now has the power to swing an election or turn an entire country against one person. In doing this, they overlay their bias on any information passed on, much the same as Emerson does throughout this essay. In Emerson’s essay “The Poet”, he describes the role of a poet in society as someone who can explain nature

Henry David Thoreau, Margaret Fuller, and Ralph Waldo Emerson were some of the most visionary authors. Transcendentalism was a hopeful philosophical and social movement that grew in New England around 1836 in response to logic. Affected by sentimentalism, Platonism, and Kantian reasoning, it taught that heavenly nature plagues all nature and humankind, and its individuals held dynamic perspectives like women's rights and collective living. Henry David Thoreau, Margaret Fuller, and Ralph Waldo Emerson had insightful thoughts that people enjoyed. These individuals revered Henry David Thoreau, Margaret Fuller, and Ralph Waldo Emerson as a result of their methods for disclosing imperative proclamations to the individuals.

Transcendentalism During the mid to late eighteen hundreds,  a new type of philosophy and religion was being developed by a few great minds. This social movement was called transcendentalism.   Entailing a looser view on how one should worship, transcendentalism teaches that the absolute divinity of God pervades all.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, the pioneer of the transcendentalist movement and Edgar Allan Poe, the pioneer of the American gothic movement, had ideas that sought to explain the state of mankind; ideas which were considered revolutionary for their time. It can be argued that both authors speak about something the soul longs for. Emerson encourages individuals to be self-reliant, which is to be true to oneself. On the other hand, Poe writes much darker works that deal with the human psyche and directly confront the problem of evil. Poe’s “The Imp of the Perverse” and “The Black Cat” can be read as criticisms and refutations of transcendentalist ideas, such as Emerson’s, by analyzing why the narrators commit murder and expose themselves.

Although Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau shared similar views and beliefs relating to Transcendentalism, the approach each author took in writing and making the ideas that were so important and concrete was not always so closely related. Thoreau's argument calls for less government and more independence while Emerson's consistence need for more self-reliance and independence from others. Thoreau viewed God as the higher authority over government, “The church is a sort of hospital for men's souls and as full of quackery as the hospital for their bodies.” (Walden) In "Self-Reliance," Emerson express the idea that the individual should be completely reliant on God. “When a man lives with God, his voice shall be as sweet

I found it interesting how Emerson weaves his theology and philosophy into his writing. From the very beginning of the passage, Emerson establishes his transcendentalist beliefs, reconciling the idea that “the wide universe is full of good” with the idea that one must work to obtain sustenance by the idea a tenant’s land “is given to him to till”. This reconciliation being that in his worldview evil cannot exist, so to explain the seeming logical inconsistency of people having to toil for food, he sets up the idea the universe provides everyone with the opportunity to achieve, but one must be willing to utilize it. The idea of transcending coming about through labor can be seen in the way transcendentalists tried to establish a utopian society and to perfect mankind. The natural world, according to Emerson’s philosophy, gives each individual unique

The very foundation of transcendentalism was a movement known as romanticism. Towards the 18th century Europe began the age of romanticism which placed emphasis on emotion and spirituality rather than convention. Once this new era hit the New World in the 19th century, transcendentalism began as an American form of romanticism in a sense. The most famous authors of this era were having their own moral conflicts at the time this social movement began. Ralph Waldo Emerson, for example, had recently begun to question religion. Known as the father of transcendentalism, Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote abstract, poetic philosophies that went beyond the physical words he wrote. In order for a reader to comprehend his complex meaning behind every word, the

The Romantic era, which peaked from 1800 to 1850, romanticized nature as a reaction to the Industrial Revolution, which placed an emphasis on factories and manufacturing. Ralph Waldo Emerson was an author with Transcendentalist beliefs, a denomination of Romantic beliefs, who published “Nature”, an essay, anonymously. He believed in the oversoul, an idea in which everything and everyone is connected to each other and the universe. Emerson’s message about nature is to convey a message encouraging readers to appreciate nature by including examples from his experiences and to accentuate that nature should only be viewed with a child’s mind so that they will learn to appreciate nature by separating themselves from society and its demands.