Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau: Transcendentalist in Conflict

      Ralph Waldo Emerson, the “entrepreneur” of the 18^th century. He started the literature gateway for the suffering generation of the Salem Witch Trials. Emerson has an entire wing of student authors that met to discuss literature; Henry David Thoreau, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Emily Dickenson, Margaret Fuller, William Ellery Channing and Jones Very (Felton p. 17). The act of not giving up one’s identity is expressed through Transcendentalism, even though humans tend to follow society.

     Transcendentalism was expressed by slowing down from life’s selfish wants to explore nature. The Transcendentalist are William Ellery Channing, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Fredrick Henry Hedge, Thomas Wentworth Higgenson, Theodore Parker, and George Ripley. To be a Transcendentalist, you have to study under the ministry of a church. The authors are Ellery Channing, Emily Dickenson, Margaret Fuller, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry David Thoreau, and Jones Very. The educators are Bronson Alcott, Elizabeth Peabody, and Franklin Sanborn (Felton p. 17).

     Transcendentalism is discovered by Ralph Waldo Emerson in Concord, Massachusetts year. The state already has a history of Paul Reveres Ride and the Boston Massacre and Boston Tea Party. The famous painting from England of the Boston Massacre is a street fight set in March 5, 1770. As a matter of fact, Walden Pond is in Boston and is the landmark for Massachusetts. “This is what makes Massachusetts a state,” say citizens of the Metropolis of America (Felton p. 22).

     Next, Ralph Waldo Emerson liked to express motifs in poems that Jones Very recorded for him (Felton p.17). He wrote simply to impress the generation of the Romantics and the Salem Witch Trials of Concord, Massachusetts year. This is where the Transcendentalist settled down and simply wrote. Emerson wrote and lived from Abraham Lincoln’s abolitionist way of life (Felton pg. 37). Emerson’s writings expressed his teachings for a new uprising. Citizens worked hard to build buildings and develop into a new era. People understand that there has to be a construction from the ashes after the War of 1812. One could question if a war has to be the catalyst for a movement. Emerson has a lodge built, and hosts the meetings of the Transcendental Saturday Club (Felton 17). 

    Two of the members, Emerson and Thoreau, paired make a famous literary duo. Emerson’s writings created Transcendentalist neighbors. Emerson sets a rhyming scheme that symbolizes his point of view of himself and others. “We Will Walk on Our Own Feet”, are famous lines spoken by Emerson.

     The Ivy League School of Harvard witnessed several speeches given by Emerson. As soon as the young Transcendentalist students underwent his studies, they were set free shortly after. The “Concord Hymn”, is the poem he writes for his students to take with them. Emerson’s message was take haste, “And shots heard round the world.” Ralph Waldo Emerson gave an introduction to society by, “Bid Time and Nature gently spare. The shaft we raise to them and thee.” (Felton p.58).

     An uprising has now occurred in Boston due to the writings of the Transcendentalist. Their literary terms of how great life is did not seem “fit” to the observers. Next, from the anti-slavery acts of Abraham Lincoln; an underground railroad is pushed out-of-sight from the taxpayers and entrepreneurs. Any slave setting foot on the land of Boston, Massachusetts was set free. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. settled his first speeches here and was thrown in jail for one day. He is later shot and killed in Memphis, Tennessee.

     Next, out of all of the writers of the Transcendentalist, Henry David Thoreau shined the most with inspiration. With his writings of Civil Disobedience, Walden and Cape Cod pulls fans from the Nature genre. Then the Unitarian church wants Emerson and Thoreau to study under the ministry. They agreed thinking it will bring them toward the “transcending” stage. No one can ever be a true Transcendentalist. It is an ongoing study and can never be mastered, even with full potential (Wikipedia pg. 1).

     Next, Immanuel Kant explains how to “transcend” into a new government. “He first coined the term for the kind of application it was to have in the 19^th century (Hutchinson pg. 27)”. Instead of trading and bartering, Kant issued the idea of currency and money.

     In conclusion, the Transcendentalist stressed “Simplicity, Simplicity, and Simplicity”. In modern terms this means not to have unlimited wants with limited resources. Instead, simplify those wants and use a little amount of resources.

 Homepage