Examples Of Transcendentalism

In the mid 1800’s, Ralph Waldo Emerson began a social movement known as Transcendentalism that would shape American culture until present day. With the help of one of his major followers, Henry David Thoreau, the Transcendentalist movement was able to establish several main ideas that defined its social beliefs. Thoreau and Emerson wrote several famous pieces of work, such as “Walden”, “Self Reliance”, and “Civil Disobedience”, which successfully inspired millions of Americans to partake in their movement, and also established a set of core beliefs which Transcendentalism comprised of. Some of the main ideas described in their work were the importance of individuality as well as the idea of trying to reform and better the American government.

“If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer” (Walden). This metaphor, written by Thoreau in one of his excerpts, emphasizes the importance of individuality to be able to achieve success. Thoreau is saying that if one “hears a different drummer”, or follows other people's ideas and actions rather than their own, they will not be able to be as successful as other individuals in society or “keep pace with their companions.” In the present world, the concept of individuality is still commonly seen in society. A very common modern phrase or idiom often used in present day is, “March to the beat of your own drum.” This phrase means that a person should act based on their own ideas, by separating them from the standard expectations of society. This modern idiom marks the relevance of individuality in present day, since it shows how people strive to be individual or “March to the beat of their own drum,” even though this idea was first established in this very excerpt by one of the fundamental builders of Transcendentalism. Not only that, but individualism has ultimately become a trait that people in modern society strive to gain in order to achieve success. Over the past years, millions

“Let every man make known what kind of government would command his respect, and that will be one step towards obtaining it” (Civil Disobedience). In his concluding sentence for Civil Disobedience, Thoreau states that every citizen should openly state what they think should be reformed about the government to “command his respect”, or make it better in their eyes. Thoreau is emphasizing the Transcendentalist idea that a citizen should not let himself be controlled by the government that runs his country, and if there is something that he does not like about it, he should at least say it because that will be the first step to changing it. This idea of openly criticizing the government as a citizen or individual has become a not only common, but an expected aspect of politics and the government itself in modern society. With the results of the past elections, millions of citizens felt unsatisfied with the winner and what the government would become; therefore, they chose to “make it known”, or express their feelings or ideas about the current government through protests. In modern day, protesting has become an immense part of politics, and is used to try and better the government based on the ideas of citizens. Whether it’s large protests against Donald Trump like in the past months,