Comparing Emerson And Thoreau And Transcendentalism

Transcendentalism is the view that the basic truths of the universe lie beyond the knowledge we obtain from our senses, reason and logic, or laws of science. The Transcendentalist Movements began in New England and it was thought that Transcendentalism was aspect of nature plus individuals plus spirituality of one’s self. Transcendentalism is not very common to people today, but there are writers today that are Transcendentalist, and they have a unique writing style. Ralph Waldo Emerson who was a unitarian minister and writer was all about “self-reliance, while his follower Henry David Thoreau, was all about “civil disobedience.” They both loved nature and the idea of simplicity, but they each lived a different lifestyle and it reflected on

Thoreau in his pieces of writing, talks about his own experiences of solitude and therefore his writing are in first person, which gives the readers a closer connection to Thoreau. Thoreau still talks about the idea of Transcendentalism, but he talks about it through experiences and not just what the Transcendentalist believe. He is giving the readers evidence and a look into how someone who believes in Transcendentalism lives. Thoreau said in the chapter titled Solitude from his book, Life in the Woods, “Some of my pleasantest hours were during the long rainstorms in the spring or fall, which confined me to the house for the afternoon as well as the forenoon, soothed but their ceaseless roar and pelting;” Thoreau is talking about a day in his life, one of his experiences, but in his experiences he is conveying Transcendentalism. When he mentions the rainstorms, he is mentioning nature and Transcendentalist believe that solitude was needed to reach God, but also nature is something that is beyond our knowledge because the world and the nature in it is so big, that the human cannot understand every aspect of it. Although Thoreau talks about his experiences in first person, Emerson talks more the theory of

Emerson gave lectures and wrote essays, yet unlike Thoreau in his writing he gave more the ideas of Transcendentalism and he did not write mainly about his real life experiences. Emerson gave talks and was just going around telling about Transcendentalist beliefs and not any inside to Transcendentalism, unlike Thoreau. Emerson and thoreau both touch on Solitude, but how each one approaches it is different, because Emerson in his piece called Nature, tells the readers why solitude is a good idea. Emerson wrote, “To go into Solitude , a man needs to retire as much from his chamber as from society. I am not solitary whilst I read and write though nobody is with me. But if a man would be alone, let him look at the stars.” Emerson talks about going into Solitude, and if you analysis it he is saying that man needs to be away from society in order to achieve spiritual transcendences because without having spiritual Transcendence one has not achieved full Transcendentalism. Full Transcendentalism requires nature, individuals and spirituality, and in today’s world, one must usually go into nature to be away from society, due to suburbs and cities. Emerson goes deeper into the meaning of solitude when he talks about how reading and writing is not being alone because if you read you are reading someone’s opinion and not focusing of knowing God and if you are writing you are also not focusing on