Transcendentalists believed that humans and nature are one, and that each person is the center of the universe. Essentially, humans are Divine by nature. The main focus of transcendentalist authors was to make apparent the true nature of humankind, when they listened inwardly to their natural desires. Although many authors believed that people were instinctually good, there are a few that believed that humans are, by nature, evil. This essay will compare Henry David Thoreau’s positive transcendentalism, which believes everyone is good, to Nathaniel Hawthorne’s negative transcendentalist writings. Henry David Thoreau believed that nature and people were naturally good, and that humans can awaken themselves to that. What it means for humans …show more content…
The use of the word here is to relate people who are not awake to parts of the train track that get buried underground and used or run over. Thoreau further explains the downsides of being a sleeper when he says: Did you ever think what those sleepers are that underlie the railroad? Each one is a man, an Irish-man, or a Yankee man. The rails are laid on them, and they are covered with sand, and the cars run smoothly over them. They are sound sleepers, I assure you. And every few years a new lot is laid down and run over; so that, if some have the pleasure of riding on a rail, others have the misfortune to be ridden upon. (1029) After reading this, it’s easy to see why it is better to be awake. If someone is a sleeper, they get run over by others and ridden upon. No one who is aware of that would wish for it to happen to them. However, despite sleepers being a common issue, Thoreau has hope. He sees the sleepers, and says that he is thankful that it looks like they may eventually “get up” (1029). This goes back to his positive transcendentalist view. He believes that everyone has the ability to wake up, even if they are currently sleepers. In contrast, Nathaniel Hawthorne incorporated a lot of dark romanticism into his transcendentalist views and writings, resulting in a much more negative take on transcendentalism. Where Thoreau believe that people can be spiritually awakened to their inner good, and
Henry David Thoreau’s words that “disobedience is the true foundation of liberty” and that “the obedient must be slaves” is a political statement that never lost its topicality during the Romantic era. Thoreau served as an important contributor to the philosophical and American literary movement known as New England Transcendentalism. Nature and the conduct of life are two central themes that are often weaved together in his essays and books that were published in the Romantic era of literature. Thoreau brought these two themes together to write on how people ought to live a simplistic life through embracing nature. His naturalistic writing intertwined cataloging and observation with Transcendentalist views of nature. Through his life and
He feels that everything in the universe is only created for him as if no one else is alive. The power of being alone, surrounded by your own thoughts, by your own nature, by your own world is truly an experience that Thoreau will never want to change. Thoreau values the sensation and thrill that solitude can have on one 's mind. Throughout Henry David Thoreau’s life, he preferred to spend his time in solitude. As being in the company of other people are beneficial, the interactions between them soon become dull and uninteresting. With the appeal of human interaction depleting, self-reflection and solitude are to be used for a replacement for conversing with people. This is because as Henry David Thoreau announces, “I love to be alone. I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude”(Thoreau 128). Thoreau’s life consists of being alone for the most part of the day. He isn 't in need of friends in order push past the lifeless moments of time. He himself is the only person he needs. Why must everyone require friends when you have yourself to connect with? You are your own best friend. Thoreau knows this and lives his life constantly digging deeper into his own thoughts asking questions and pondering about himself. He is able to truly discover his inner self to the full extent by being succumbed in his own solitude. In allowing himself to be his own companion he has also allowed solitude to become his best
Followers of the Transcendentalist movement stressed the religious, philosophical and ideological importance of life. Henry David Thoreau was a staunch supporter of the movement. Thoreau felt that a person lived a good life by following his conscience and instincts. He also felt that materialism was a sure way to distract a person from leading a good and moral life. Thoreau proposed for the government to be involved in as little of a citizen's life as possible; he felt too much government control just complicated a person's life. Like most Transcendentalists, Thoreau believed there was a direct connection to God through nature. If a person appreciated nature he would gain a higher understanding of God. Finally, Thoreau encouraged
Thoreau wished to live with only what was essential. He felt that how people in society were living was not how a man should truly live. At one point Thoreau described how most people go through the day as people who are sleeping.The text reads”The millions are awake enough for physical labor; but only one in a million is awake enough for effective intellectual exertion, only one in a hundred millions to a poetic or divine life. To be awake is to be alive”(14).The people who are sleeping just go about their day not really living, but just getting by. In order to keep himself awake, Thoreau distanced himself from society and decided to “drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms.”(16) McCandless held a similar view. He wanted to get out of the simple suburban life he had been raised in and live on his own away from others. In a letter to Ronald Franz, one of the many people touched by McCandless’ company, the young man encourages the older man to drop everything and do the things he may never have thought of doing before. he continues in saying,”So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure
The point of the essay is to encourage the reader to act upon their opinions. Thoreau believes that simply having an opinion or casting a vote doesn’t cause change in the world, so it is important that people take the necessary steps to fix the problems they face as a society.
Thoreau is basically rallying for the absence of government in the lives of the citizens. He believed that everyone should govern himself. He also believed that no one should have to ride on the shoulders of the government, but instead rely on himself. He thought people should treat other people the way they wanted to be treated, and follow the natural laws of society. Martin Luther King Jr. believed there should be laws or it would be total anarchy. Thoreau believed that without the
A Comparison of Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Beliefs concerning Simplicity, the Value and Potential of Our Soul, and Our Imagination.Henry David Thoreau tests Ralph Waldo Emerson’s ideas about nature by living at Walden Pond, where he discovers that simplicity in physical aspects brings deepness to our mind, our soul to its fullest potential, and our imagination to be uplifted to change our lives. These two men believe that nature is what forces us not to depend on others’ ideas but to develop our own. Nature is ever changing so we must keep searching for explanations about human life. They feel that nature is the key to knowing all.Thoreau lives at Walden Pond to find the true meaning of life. He wants to experience
Thoreau takes great pains to describe each character, even down to the farmer’s “wrinkled, sibyl-like, cone-headed”[3] infant in chapter 10, “Baker Farm”. He makes sure his readers understand the unique attributes of each individual in his experiences. As Thoreau once said, “It is what a man thinks of himself that really determines his fate.”
In the mid-1830s, Ralph Waldo Emerson created a belief called Transcendentalism. He wrote the essay, “Self Reliance” and Henry David Thoreau, another Transcendentalist wrote an essay called, “Walden.” Both works of literature focus on the Transcendentalism belief. In “The Minister’s Black Veil” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hawthorne reveals both Transcendentalism and Anti-Transcendentalism through the attitudes of the characters. Therefore, “The Minister’s Black Veil” can be compared and contrasted with both “Self Reliance” and “Walden.”
Thoreau did not only suffer from unfounded superiority, he was also an extreme hypocrite who failed to live up to the expectations he set for the rest of man. For instance, one of Thoreau’s fundamental ideologies included his belief that in order to live a good life people needed live in nature, freeing themselves of everything except the necessities. This fundamental transcendental idea, one that was discussed extensively by Ralph Waldo Emerson and
Henry David Thoreau was testing transcendental values when he took up residence at Walden Pond in 1845. During his time of simple living at the pond, he studied nature and applied those observations to humans and everyday life. He was always learning from the woods, pond, meadows and animals in the natural world around him. Nature was his classroom and everything was an opportunity to learn. In Thoreau’s book, Walden , written at the pond, he theorized that education could come through an intimacy with nature and the end of education would come with death.
Thoreau wished to open the minds of many revealing the importance of nature “Let us spend one day as deliberately as Nature, and not be thrown off the track by every nutshell and mosquito's wing that falls on the rails” (Thoreau II). In the quote, Thoreau discusses how he learned to live deliberately in nature encouraging other members of society to do the same. He has learned that it can lead to harmonization with oneself, to
Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) was an American philosopher, author, poet, abolitionist, and naturalist. He was famous for his essay, “Civil Disobedience”, and his book, Walden. He believed in individual conscience and nonviolent acts of political resistance to protest unfair laws. Moreover, he valued the importance of observing nature, being individual, and living in a simple life by his own values. His writings later influenced the thoughts of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. In “Civil Disobedience” and Walden, he advocated individual nonviolent resistance to the unjust state and reflected his simple living in the nature.
There have been numerous religious rebellions throughout history, but none quite like that of Transcendentalism. This movement embodies the idea that spiritual growth can be achieved through personal journey instead of conflicting with organized religion. By the time of the movement’s onset, newly gained religious freedom in the United States allowed for new ideas and beliefs to prosper freely. At the heart of this movement was Transcendentalism philosophy famous ambassadors, Ralph Waldo Emerson and apprentice Henry David Thoreau. These men believed nature is what forces us not to depend on other ideas but to develop our own.
Transcendentalism is the belief that people and nature are inherently good. Transcendentalists believe that the institutionalization of society has corrupted the good and purity of people, and that instead of such institutions, self-reliance and individualism are where people perform at their best. The transcendental movement in the 19th century was met with a small wave of skeptics, most notably, authors such as Edgar Allen Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne, who were part of a subgenre of Romanticism called Dark Romanticism. Literature within this subgenre was in direct contrast of the utopian ideas of transcendentalism; these writers did not believe in humanity’s inherent perfection. Furthermore, Dark Romantic authors presented their characters as individuals prone to self-destruction and sin, unlike the transcendentalists who saw individuals as full of wisdom, divinity, and goodness.