Transcendentalism

In the writing Nature by Ralph Waldo Emerson, he shows many signs that he is talking about transcendentalism. The way he looked at life is the same as the transcendentalists looked at life. They believed that the only way to connect with God was through solitude or nature. They also believed that everyones mind was connected and that God spoke to us through our intuition. In Nature he uses things such as solitude and a sense of peace.

In the first paragraph Emerson is talking about being alone but not feeling alone. He says that "I am not solitary while I read and write, though nobody is with me." By this i think he means that even tho he is alone he doesn't feel alone because God is with him .I think this is an example of transcendentalism because he is talking to God through solitude. Hes saying that when he is reading and writing alone he can connect with God.

In the writing Self-Reliance Emerson has examples of transcendentalism but not through solitude. Transcendentalists believed that God spoke through hard work. The hard work that people did was what God had them do. They also believed in individuality. They believed that everyone should be a individual because God spoke through individuals and not institutions like the government.

In the first paragraph of Self Reliance Emerson is saying "There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion;" I believe Emerson is saying that you must be an individual and not imitate someone else because that would mean you aren't following what God wants you to. That you should accept yourself whether it's good or bad.

In Resistance to Civil Government by Henry David Thoreu, he says "That government is best which governs least." I thought this was a good example of transcendentalism because its saying that a government that is letting the people do what they want is a government that works the best. This is a good example because they didn't believe in a government. Transcendentalist thought that the world would be better off without a government. That the government was just a waste of time.

The Wilderness video is about a man in his fifties. This man decides to live alone in the wilderness for awhile. The man builds a house out of wood by himself. Eventually the man decides to leave the wilderness and live with people again. In this video there are several signs of Transcendentalism. For example he decides to live alone in nature. Transcendentalist believe that when your alone in nature you can connect with God. Another sign is when he builds his house by himself. This is a sign because they believed that when you do work by yourself and be independent then you are doing the work God intended and that you are the person he intended.