Henry David Thoreau: The Correlation Of History And Transcendentalism

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Jesus Olaiz:
Mrs. Hughes
English III
3/6/2015
The Correlation of History and Transcendentalism A man named Henry David Thoreau went into the woods and lived on his own for 2 years and 2 months and 2 days. From his point of view, he thought it helped with his writing and improved his outlook on life. Also, there was the current historical issues that pushed him to want to escape in the first place. Everything he did for those two years stuck directly to the current ideals and values of transcendentalism. Transcendentalism had an impact on history and also was shaped by the current events of that period. Henry David Thoreau was not just an average poet. He was at the pinnacle of transcendentalism. His writings are so famous that they are still widely read and analyzed today. In order to understand why he grew to be himself and have his style of writing, which was transcendental, we need to go back to when he was younger and research why he is who he is. As a bright student Thoreau went to Harvard. He studied many languages such as German, Latin, and even Greek. He graduated in the year of 1837 with the struggle of truly finding what his profession would be. Someone like Thoreau should have chosen the pathway of a doctor or even a lawyer.
They actually helped for what we know as transcendentalism today. Also it was not just formed by the writers but the history and situations that had risen to create a reason for a positive outlook. These two things are what lead to the ideals and mannerisms of transcendentalism. There wouldn’t be this form of writing without them. Society would have also not had an output for negative feelings at the time as humanity struggled. This shaped the media and literature of the time. History and transcendentalism shaped each other. Without one, the other wouldn’t exist. Our world would have gone down a completely different

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