Homework Help: English: Writing: Transcendentalism

"Transcendentalism" was the name for the literary movement that took place during the 19th century. But, what exactly is Transcendentalism?

Transcendentalists (people who believed in Transcendentalism) had many different beliefs from other groups of people. They were strongly against materialism. They believed that everyone is an individual and should act like one. Transcendentalists also believed that you should trust yourself. They were also very spiritual and religous people.

Ralph Waldo Emerson was a very well-known Transcendentalist. He wrote many essays and books on the subject of Trascendentalism, including "Nature" and "Self-Reliance." In "Nature," Emerson wrote about religion and God. "The presence of the divine spirit in both nature and the human soul made a direct understanding of God and an openness to the natural world avenues to self-understanding as well as to the perception of broader truth." (concordma.com). In "Self-Reliance," he talked about how you should trust yourself and be independent, rather then relying on others.

Henry David Thoreau was another Transcendentalist and a good friend of Emerson's. Thoreau is most known for spending two years by himself in a little cabin along Walden pond, something that most people could not and would not do. He wrote about his experiences from this time period in a book called "Walden." In this book, Thoreau discussed his beliefs and ideas on " society and the individual, sounds and silence, body and spirit, form and flux, etc." (vcu.edu).

Emerson and Thoreau were not the only Transcendentalists, however, there weren't very many. Other Transcendentalists included Theodore Parker, Maragaret Fuller, William Ellery Channing, among others. Despite being just a small group of people from the New England area, Transcendentalists developed a form of writing that would inspire many other writers to come. So, Transcendentalism can be described as a philosophy based upon "the rising to a state beyond sense experience." (themystica.com). This means that the Transcendentalists believed that the individual should higher himself above all things, and the Transcendentalists explained how and why the individual should do this in their writings. " The Transcendentalists can be understood in one sense by their context -- by what they were rebelling against, what they saw as the current situation and therefore as what they were trying to be different from." (transcendentalists.com)Transcendentalism deserves further study, for, in today's world, it is sometimes hard to be an independent individual in society.

Homework Help: English: Writing

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