Henry David Thoreau Henry David Thoreau, an American born author and philosopher, was born in Concord, Massachusetts in the hot, bright summer of 1817. He survived from July 12, 1817 through May 6, 1862 and died in the late spring due to a severe case of tuberculosis that he battled since his college days at Harvard College. Thoreau had a very normal childhood, and it was not until his later years that he actually came to know his true self and how he wanted to live. He attended college at Harvard College. There, he studied many different languages. He was a very bright man and did not do what others would have expected a guy like him to do after college. Thoreau is considered one of the best authors in American literature and his works are …show more content…
Transcendentalism is a belief that would, in a way, consume Thoreau`s thoughts and it would be portrayed throughout his many works that he published and wrote. “Transcendentalism regarded nature, both as symbol and actuality” (http://www.notablebiographies.com). Thoreau wrote about being a transcendentalists in Walden; or, Life in the Woods. Another belief that he had was that he wanted an end to slavery. Thoreau was an active abolitionist until the end of his life. Thoreau wrote about being an abolitionist and how he felt on the topic of slavery. One of his works that focus on the abolition of slavery is Slavery in Massachusetts. In Slavery in Massachusetts, Thoreau wrote about taking a stand. He took a brave stand for Captain John Brown, an abolitionist. Thoreau wrote about taking a stand for him because Captain John Brown led an uprising against slavery and eventually got convicted of treason and died for this uprising against slavery. Thoreau really admired Captain John Brown for his bravery. His beliefs were portrayed throughout all of his works of literature. Thoreau was an outspoken man and defended his beliefs without a doubt. He was not ashamed to speak what he had on his mind and he did exactly
Henry David Thoreau, a Harvard graduate, did not exceed in his professions he studied. Thoreau studied the art of teaching and when he returned to teach in his home town of Concord he quit within the first two weeks because he would not conform to the
Henry David Thoreau was a mid-nineteenth century transcendentalist philosopher and writer. Thoreau is best remembered for his book “Walden”, detailing his simple life living by Walden Pond. His other most well-known work is “Civil Disobedience”, a philosophical, political piece concerning his views on 19th century America. A fervent pacifist, humanitarian and abolitionist, Thoreau stopped paying his poll taxes (a tax levied on all adults in a community) as a form of protest towards the government for the Mexican American War and slavery. After being imprisoned in July 1846 for not paying his taxes, Thoreau wrote Civil Disobedience in response. The two main things that Thoreau argues for in “Civil Disobedience” are the idea of a limited government
“My nearest neighbor is a mile distant, and no house is visible from any place but the hill-tops within half a mile of my own. I have my horizon bounded by woods all to myself; a distant view of the railroad where it touches the pond on the one hand, and of the fence which skirts the woodland road on the other. But for the most part it is as solitary where I live as on the prairies. It is as much Asia or Africa as New England.”
The philosophical and religious movement of Transcendentalism was created during the early 1800’s. People who consider themselves Transcendentalists are dedicated to the ideas and ways that society’s government and controlled religion will destroy the self. They believe in the self and the pureness of the individual. They also had an understanding that all people held a piece of God inside of them; belief that God is one being and all people are combined into one God. Henry David Thoreau is considered one of the well-known Transcendentalists of his time. In Walden and Civil Disobedience there is proof that provides insight into Thoreau’s life and why he was chosen to be one.
Henry David Thoreau is among many other early American transcendentalist thinkers, including Ralph Waldo Emerson. Thoreau wrote many pieces and accomplished much in his lifetime; including the time he spent in the wilderness near the Walden Pond observing only the essential facts of life to further understand life as a whole. Many would quote him for his tremendous contributions to early American thought and his outstanding thoughts, “Even to call him a Transcendentalist is to underplay the carefully observed and circumstantial style of much of his writing and the sense of physical participation on which the style is based,” (Dougherty). One of the many things that Thoreau did and journalized in his famous writing Walden was his adventure from
John and Cynthia Thoreau gave life to Henry David Thoreau on July second 1871. From infantry Thoreau had the finest education his parents could give him. Thoreau started out at Miss Phoebe Wheeler’s Private Infant School and shot all the way through Harvard. A college graduate could do anything that he wanted, Henry could have been anything he wanted but instead he chose to teach. He taught at the Center School where he realized that children learn in different ways and at different speeds. Thoreau did not believe in the way the school was being run, so he quit and went to work at his fathers pencil factory. When Emerson hears that Thoreau is working in a factory he is absolutely appalled. Emerson gets him to start writing and the journals start to multiply rapidly.
To trace the origin of the Transcendental movement one needs to go back to the city of Concord, Massachusetts. There during the early 19th century many well-known and world-renowned authors were following the practices of one man, Ralph Waldo Emerson. Emerson, who was considered America's first philosopher, had earlier traveled to Europe and became fascinated by the concepts of one German philosopher known as Kant. According to Emerson's understanding of Kant, there were two pure objects in the world in which are the bases of everything, nature and soul. He took this philosophy and brought it back to America where it later, with the help of Henry David Thoreau, revolutionized American literature.
...ed to an optimistic emphasis on individualism, self-reliance, and rejection of traditional authority” (American 1). The major players in the transcendentalist movement are Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. They shared ideas such as self-reliance, and ideas about how there is a divine being that controls every person. They influenced many other writers and they even had an effect on the American society, then and now. Transcendentalism was a philosophy and a way of life. It will continue to be this as long as we have access to the great minds of the transcendental movement.
Henry David Thoreau’s Walden encompasses a variety of themes and elements which cultivate an astounding work of American literature. “Spring” is focused on the changing of the season from winter to spring, and Thoreau’s analysis of Walden Pond and the area surrounding the pond. Thoreau looks at the pond from a spiritual aspect, describing the relationships between life and nature with an abysmal passion. Without Thoreau’s incorporation of precise literary elements, and integration of the themes of solitude, newness of life, and transcendentalism to clearly outline the spiritual revelations he obtained from his retirement at Walden Pond, the readers of his work would not be able to completely grasp the concepts Thoreau presents.
Henry David Thoreau was an American essayist, poet, philosopher, abolitionist, naturalist, tax resister, development critic, surveyor, and historian. A leading transcendentalist, Thoreau is best known for his book Walden, a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and his essay "Civil Disobedience", an argument for disobedience to an unjust state.
Henry David Thoreau was born David Henry Thoreau on July 12, 1817, Concord, Massachusetts. He had three siblings, John, Helen, and a younger sister, Sophia. His mother, Cynthia Dunbar, rented parts of their home, and his father, John, operated a local pencil factory. As a very smart and promising student, he went to Harvard College (Bio). In order to help pay for his tuition, his older brother John taught school while he was there (HDT). At one point, he took a break from college since it seemed to disinterest him, to teach in Canton, Massachusetts. His brother John died from tetanus while they were running a grammar school in Concord, the Concord Academy (Life and Legacy). Louisa May Alcott was one of their students (Schmoop).
Nathaniel Hawthorne is a very well known American short story writer, and romantic novelist. Nathaniel was born on July 4th of 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts. Shortly after being born Nathaniel’s father Nathaniel who was a seaman, passed away in 1808 due to yellow fever at sea. This caused Nathaniel's mother Elizabeth to take Hawthorne and his two sisters to live with her brothers. Most of his ancestors, and family consisted of businessmen, judges, and seamen. Nathaniel was born into a family of puritans, ones with a very strict religious background which affects hawthorns writing in the future. Nathaniel’s great great grandfather was a well-known and crucial judge that controlled what happened to the supposed witches in the Salem witch trials. This made the hawthorns believe that they had a
Henry David Thoreau's dominant trait was being a Transcendentalist. Transcendentalism is the belief asserting the existence of an ideal spiritual reality that transcends the experimental and scientific and is knowable through instinct.
Henry David Thoreau’s early life began in Concord, Massachusetts on July 12, 1817. He was baptized as David Henry Thoreau later reversing his middle and first names. He was raised with his older siblings John and Helen and his younger sister Sophia. His father managed a local pencil factory, and his mother rented out rooms in the family’s house to boarders. His mother encouraged his love of nature. As a young boy, every morning he would go out for a walk in the woods to seek inspiration and admire the natural beauty. When Thoreau started school, he attended Concord public schools and later, his mother insisted that all the children go to a prestigious private Concord Academy. A bright student Thoreau entered Harvard College in 1833. Unfortunately, for financial reasons Thoreau had to drop out and began teaching a small school in Canton, Massachusetts. In 1838, he left to start his own school with the help of his brother John and it prospered for a while. However it eventually collapsed a few years later when his brother grew ill. Thoreau went back to help his father in the pencil making business. After college, Thoreau met Ralph Waldo Emerson and shortly after they beca...
Transcendentalism was an early philosophical, intellectual, and literary movement that thrived in New England in the nineteenth century. Transcendentalism was a collection of new ideas about literature, religion, and philosophy. It began as a squabble in the Unitarian church when intellectuals began questioning and reacting against many of the church’s orthodoxy ways regarding all of the aforementioned subjects: religion, culture, literature, social reform, and philosophy. They in turn developed their own faith focusing on the divinity of humanity and the innate world. Many of the Transcendentalists ideas were expressed heavily by Ralph Waldo Emerson, in his essays such as “Nature”, “Self Reliance”, and also in his poems such as “The Rhodora.” Some may even go as far as to say that Emerson is the definite center of this movement. Emerson was not alone in his path of thought; other prominent authors such as Henry David Thoreau and Margaret Fuller were dubbed as Transcendentalists. The Transcendental movement significantly shaped and changed the course of American literature; many writers were profoundly influenced by Emerson and Thoreau and in turn began using transcendental thought, whether in response to or by how they imitated transcendental ideas. The roots of Transcendentalism began to grow from Emerson’s Nature and Self-Reliance, as well as Thoreau’s Walden, which inspired many writers and intellectuals to take part in this optimistic belief that God is inherent in each and every individual, as well as in nature, and the highest source of knowledge can be achieved through individuality, self-reliance, and the rejection of traditional authority.