The Importance Of Transcendentalism In Thoreau

Silence fills the air. A man in his late 20’s lies in a handmade hut in a private 14 acre woodlot known as Walden Pond. Two essays are strewn across the mossy floor: Self Reliance and Nature. Suddenly, footsteps could be heard outside. It turns out that the man’s mother came with freshly baked cookies and some food for breakfast. Later on that day, more footsteps could be heard. Outside, a group of people had emerged, looking for the young man. Once again, the tranquility of Walden Pond was broken. This man was Thoreau and he was “exploring” the modest life of simplicity by separating himself from society. Living alone in the wilderness is a great way to discover nature and to understand the need for simplicity. In a world filled with bustle

Because decades have past since America’s independence from Britain, certain people, lead by Emerson, believed that it was time for a unique style that was created in America, as to not blindly follow other countries. This idea becomes one of the key points in transcendentalism; the idea of not conforming to society and to use intuition and rationality to make their own choices without fear of others. However, as shown above in the short fictional story that is based on true facts, one can see that Thoreau was not the type of man that fit in with the traditional definitions of transcendentalism. Because it is hard to define transcendentalism, as it could be interpreted in different ways, this leads to a discrepancy between the original creators of transcendentalism and the following generations that have been labeled by society as transcendentalists. In these ranks include Thoreau, a social reformer firmly against many of the ideals held by the

This can ironically be proven by one of his most used pieces of writing: Walden. Walden, a book written in 1854, was a chronicle of Thoreau’s experiences living in the woods of Walden Pond. In this book, Thoreau talks about and mentions many points of transcendentalism, including both the benefits to taking time to live without any distractions and to live in simplicity, as well as the many revelations that he had about himself. By reading Thoreau’s book, it truly does seem like he is a devout transcendentalist. However, it has later been shown that Thoreau’s account of living by himself has been falsified in order to appeal to the audience. The most important points about his essay has been proven to be lies, which then leads to the hypocritical image of Thoreau. One example of this is when he mentions that “far from noise and disturbance ... I discovered ... (I was) at equal remoteness from the life which I had left behind, dwindled and twinkling with as fine a ray to my nearest neighbor” (204). Thoreau mentions that because he is living by himself in a remote place in Walden Pond he was successfully able to understand the workings of the world and experience the world countless centuries ago. Living by himself allowed him to freely contemplate about his life without the distractions of others, allowing himself to find out more about himself and to become who he truly was. Although this seems