Live the life you choose to live. An idea like this favors the transcendentalist movement. The Transcendentalist movement held staple values such as self-reliance, naturalism, individualism, and a cosmic connection between man and God. The ideas that were established in the 19th century still hold value today. However, how easy is it to live a life based on these views? In today’s age we have grown accustomed to our comforts: the phone, a remote, fast food, and that new television that we just have to have. As a society we crave the newest piece and essentially have centered our mainstream society to conform to technology. So the question becomes in the cookie cutter and industrialized society how easily can you be a transcendentalist. In …show more content…
In society we make our own personal statements that make us unique. Individualism is less of a struggle to follow because it involves embracing yourself. In Self-Reliance Emerson displays his strong viewpoint on individualism and the divine spirit in all people. Emerson opens up his writing by noting that people become aware that “envy is ignorance and imitation is suicide”(Emerson). The concept of being an individual is so valuable according to Emerson that he equates it to be dead and oblivious. In society this value could be expressed by creating a unique fashion statement or voicing your own opinions. The struggle comes into play when you analyze what formed you to become this so called individual. If you have lived in society it is pretty hard to eliminate the way it has formed your own existence. The fact is your surroundings influence you as a person, so essentially your decisions are made for you. In the Devil Wears Prada, the movie, the designer makes a poignant note about the fashion industry that the pieces we wear have be crafted to fit groups in society. This is applicable to mostly all of modern society that products produced have had timed and effort to get it to its target individuals. So the struggle with modern society is not one’s ability to express themselves but how true are people to being individuals if your decisions have been made for
In this essay, I will compare the philosophies of transcendentalism and anti-transcendentalism through the writings of Thoreau and Emerson vs. Melville. In Thoreau’s excerpt of “Walden”, he tested the transcendentalist philosophy through experience. Emerson’s transcendental writing style is displayed in “Nature”. In Melville’s excerpt of Moby Dick, he exhibits anti-transcendentalism in his work.
Transcendentalism is based on the belief that institutions in the society corrupt an individual’s purity. Transcendentalists believe that people are at their best when they are truly independent and self-reliant. They also believe that from independence and self-reliance, a true community is formed. Even though Transcendentalism is not recognized, it still exists in the modern society. Though not clearly outspoken as in Emerson and Thoreau’s times, many people in today’s society still have transcendental beliefs. Transcendental ideals are found in songs, films, books and other works such as media and advertisements. One example is the song “Get up, Stand up,” by Bob Marley, it is found to be influenced and has inspiration of transcendental elements such as Solitude (individuality), self-reliance, non-conformism (anti-institution), anti-materialism, nature and spirituality.
The Important Role of Transcendentalism in American History In 1830, a movement known as Transcendentalism began to gain popularity in America. Representing an idealistic system of thought, "strength, courage, self-confidence, and independence of mind"1 were some basic values admired by the followers of the Transcendental movement. Transcendentalists opposed many aspects of their government, where they felt "many unjust laws existed.
Even though people listen to music just to hear the melody, music is a way to express certain feelings and think about what the song means to someone personally. 20th century pop artists including Dido, Louis Armstrong, and Garth Brooks reveal transcendentalist values of the 19th century Literary Movement through self-reliance, deliberate living, and importance of nature.
Mankind has lost its place at the center of God’s universe. Now, when you watch the
...e by God to merge all things in the world. This can only be realized when a person becomes a part of nature and see the message that everyone comes from god. A metaphor from “Self Reliance” is “Trust thyself: Every heart vibrates to that iron string” (Emerson 225). What this quote is trying to say is if you trust yourself then you can truly be content in whatever you do or wherever you go. The last metaphor is in Thoreau’s work called “from Walden, or Life in the Woods.” The quote states, “I did not wish to take a cabin passage, but rather to go before the mast and on the deck of the world, for there I could best see the moonlight amid the mountains” (Thoreau 243). The comparison is Thoreau’s imaginative, fresh way of saying he doesn’t want to be safe and comfortable. He wants adventure. These are just some metaphors found in Emerson’s writing and Thoreau’s writing.
“The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost is the best representation of transcendentalism because it shows self-reliance, conformity versus nonconformity, and the importance of nature. In the poem, the speaker makes a choice to continue their walk through the forest on the path that is barely disturbed. The speaker’s choice showed the reader that the speaker had free will and trust in their decision, which plays into the theme of self-reliance in transcendentalism. The poem also touches on the definitions of conformity and nonconformity when the speaker described the path of nonconformity as if, “no step had trodden black.” The author did not describe the path of conformity in the poem in detail, but the lack of description perfectly tied into the
Leaving civilization behind and moving to a cabin in the woods would be a challenge for man in today’s society. People today often live complex lives with massive focus on material goods. This is the opposite of living a transcendentalist lifestyle. Transcendentalists believe thought and spiritual things are more real than ordinary human experience and material things. A few of the many ideas Transcendentalism follows are; God as nature, less government and the search for meaning.
This idea brings about the transcendental concept of the belief in the worth of the individual. The individual, in transcendental philosophy, has the power to accomplish anything and everything. Social organization and friendship offer a small satisfaction of companionship and structure in life, but one will ultimately succeed based upon his own skills and conviction. In doing so, he will lose interest in the society and concentrate on more individual dependency as he strives to gain ultimate truth in life. "What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think." Once one considers less the social ramifications of his actions and considers more the personal consequences, he will become more apt to discover what he is looking for; in the transcendentalists’ case, it was the meaning of life.
People today look up to characters who display definite attributes of good and evil. Characters such as Captain America, Ironman, and Thor clearly depict the good of an individual whereas characters like Ultron, Loki, and Thanos depict the evil side. As well as in comic books, there is a shift in view during different time periods. In Puritanism, Puritans hold others to conform to the universal view of their uniform beliefs. Deists held logic and reasoning higher above individual views. In Transcendentalism, Transcendentalists believed people were at their best when they were independent and self-reliant. And so, the canonical literature created by some
It is an absolute fact that if Emerson could see what we are as a culture today, he’s roll over in his grave. He’d roll over to hurl. All he wanted was for people to be their own selves and to respect nature. And yet here we are, all carbon copied clones of one another doing all that we can to conform to the ideas of others and what they say is right without so much as a thought of what our own thoughts would feel like. We are even told that what we say and do as a part of everyday life is one’s individuality! HA! We drive our little boxes (cars) to bigger boxes (jobs) to fill boxes of different sorts up, all day every day so that we can get our little green box shaped paper (money) in the hopes of paying for big boxes to live in (rooms houses
Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment”. This quote explains how hard it is to truly fit in today’s society because people are constantly faced with obstacles of people who are trying to make into someone you were not made to be. When someone is able to be themselves around other it makes them stand out in the crowd and makes their peers truly notice them. Being able to be yourself in today’s society proves that you are able to get past the judgement of others, accepting yourself as a person, and able to stand your ground when it comes to obstacles in your life.
Transcendentalists believe that the human race is great, and everyone has something unique to offer to the world. Many times, those who have been tricked into conforming to society tend to shun those who reveal their unique qualities. I believe that instead of tolerating or simply accepting people’s differences, we should celebrate them. In this way, no one will feel like they are being tolerated, or that they are a burden to others and their peers are just being insincerely civil around them. Instead, they feel that they are being loved, as they should be.
The surge of optimism that clothed the American nation as a result of the vast progress in expansion and reform also applied to American literature. The 19th-century brought massive technological developments, which led to new literary advancements. Weaning off of Romantic ideals, a new era emerged and its philosophies have become an integral part of American opinion. Transcendentalism is not considered as a religion but rather as a philosophical movement, with Ralph Waldo Emerson as the founder and leader. Emerson went to Harvard and worked as a teacher and minister until he lost faith in many parts of the current Christian belief ideology and left the church. Many years later he challenged the broadly accepted principles of that time and introduced new ideologies that fueled the transcendentalism movement. Characteristics of transcendentalism include: “basic truths of the universe lay buried in a man’s knowledge through his developed senses
Just go with the flow, don’t stick out of the crowd, everyone else is doing it. Everyone has been told a statement like this at some point in their lifetime. Today conformity is the new American dream. What is trending being the thing to do, you are unpopular if you aren’t like everyone else. Is this the way society advances? Ralph Waldo Emerson believed that this wasn’t the case. Emerson believed conformity is controlled by society however; conformity also poisons society at the same time. This theme can be easily seen in Emerson’s Self-Reliance, which discusses conformity. Society vs the mind, destructiveness of imitation, and the power of human will, are just three of the many topics Emerson discusses throughout Self-Reliance.