Henry David Thoreau's Extreme Transcendentalism

Henry David Thoreau is known as one of the most relevant transcendentalist authors in America, not only thanks to his work as an author but also his ideology and activism as a normal individual. His transcendentalist way of both thinking and living was not only influenced by the fact that he lived in Concord, the cradle of transcendentalism in the US, but also by being in close touch with other great transcendentalists such as Bronson Alcott or Ralph Waldo Emerson. The latter one was probably the most influential on Thoreau’s development as a true transcendentalist, since Thoreau actually put into practice Emerson’s thought that in order to get to know who oneself truly is, you have to focus on Nature and devote yourself to it; and he captured his experience in the wonderfully descriptive and spiritual book Walden. Thoreau’s approach to transcendentalism, as compared to other authors and thinkers

American currencies, specifically coins, have two sides: a head and a tail. The head and tail are different, yet they are still part of the same coin. Two American authors, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Nathaniel Hawthorne, represent two sides of the same coin: Transcendentalism. Transcendentalism swept through America as a new worldview in the 1900’s. Transcendentalism is a philosophy that asserts the primacy of the spiritual and transcendental over the material, that deals with aspects of nature.

Beginning in the early eighteen hundreds the first acts of the transcendentalism arose in the United States. The Harvard divinity school housed the father of transcendentalism as he is known as professor named Emerson, who expressed ideals of independence, freedom, and the art of nature. In fact, his teachings inspired many to open their eyes and see the government 's corruption and horrid ways. Thus changing the citizens ' views on society and listening to these transcendentalist. Within the novel, Into The Wild written by Jon Krakauer tells the amazing story of a true transcendentalists Chris McCandless discovering himself and the lies of his family 's stealthy history.

The Simplistic Living of Chris McCandless Around the 1830s-1840s, transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson founded an intellectual movement called transcendentalism. Like Emerson, Jon Krakauer writes with detailing transcendentalist keys in his book Into the Wild. In Into the Wild Krakauer shows his similar experiences through the character Chris McCandless. Krakauer uses transcendentalism by detailing the many keys McCandless portraits in the book. These keys are, goodness of humans and respect for other beauty, respect and beauty of nature, the importance of self-expression and self-reliance, non-conformity, and reducing dependence on property.

Holden Caulfield, in the novel The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, is an ideal transcendental hero. Though the question here is to what extent is Holden a transcendental hero. Holden’s way of being can be hard to understand, he has those “soft” moments where he seeks for his sister for comfort, or his red hunting hat, but most of all, a baseball glove that belonged to his younger brother, Allie who passed away. Other time, it’s the complete opposite, he goes for cigarettes, or alcohol. Another way that helps him with his moments, is going out into nature and relaxing.

Was Chris McCandless a true transcendentalist? Transcendentalism is a system developed by Immanuel Kant, based on the idea that, in order to understand the nature of reality, one must first examine and analyze the reasoning process that governs the nature of experience. Influenced by romanticism, Platonism, and Kantian philosophy, it taught that divinity pervades all nature and humanity, and its members held progressive views on feminism and communal living. Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau were central figures. In Jon Krakauer’s novel, Into the Wild, McCandless is viewed as a transcendentalist.

Raplh Emerson, Henry Thoreau, Jon Krakauer, and Michael Donova were all believers in a theory called transcendentalism. Krakauer wrote a non fictional book about a boy who went of on an adventure to Alaska and Donovan wrote a poem about himself. Knowing this information they do not seem to be comparable with each other, but can be. Krakauers’ book is about a young man from a welthy family who decided one day to hitchhike into Alaska and walked alone into the the wilderness where he died. Along the way he met alot of interesting people and seen a lot of great places and lands throughout the country.

Whitman uses transcendentalist ideas throughout his collection “Song of Myself”. Often many times transcendentalism pertains to the idea of how it is dealt with having god in each living thing. “Born here of parents born here from parents the same, and their parents the same,” (Whitman #1). In this quote it is trying to show how the same generations are living in a certain area which can prove the point in how god is in each individual. Another big part of Whitman’s work is nature in which it's a majority of transcendentalism.

Walt Whitman’s poetry conveys his vision of democracy, a spiritually and socially transcendental political system, through his usage of epanaphora and cataloging, By applying transcendental qualities, such as individuality, the inner-self, and nature, on a national scale, Whitman creates an organic form of democracy that celebrates both the diversity and union of the American people. Epanaphora is the repetition of words at the beginning of two or more successive verses. Catalog verse is the listing of people or abstract qualities that work to emphasize a thematic message.

“How can an individual maintain integrity and pursue personal dreams while contributing to the overall society”(Shea 259)? It has become continuously shown that an individual remains formed and shaped in relation to the community he or she grows up in. “The word community itself is changing, coming to mean a group of like-mind people sharing common interests, when in the past it referred to a group of people of various skills and interests cooperating with one another in order to survive” (Shea 259). The community provides the individual with the necessities of life, and it remains the duty of the individual to use these necessities in the most reasonable way.