Henry David Thoreau And Emerson Compare And Contrast

Emerson and Thoreau
When prominent literary theorists come to mind, many think of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. These men are both brilliant and share many of the same pleasures, such as a love of their surroundings and the importance of nature. They both shared views towards an alternate government and lived the lives of individualistic, laid back non-conformists. Thoreau and Emerson were among the elite writers in the Transcendentalist movement. Both men found the need for change in the American system but took slightly different philosophical routes.
Transcendentalism began amidst the middle of the nineteenth century as a religious concept rooted in the ideas of American democracy. A group of Boston ministers, Emerson being
The transcendentalist movement struck at the right time with the American populous. Transcendentalist writers had a curious position in relation to abolitionism. Thoreau had the strongest sentiment against slavery and wrote about it in his essay “Resistance to Civil Government.” General distrust of organized government was a common theme, such as the separation of morality from church doctrine was the separation of men from the government.
Government is at best but an expedient; but most governments are usually, and all governments are sometimes, inexpedient. The objections which have been brought against a standing army, and they are many and weighty, and deserve to prevail, may also at last be brought against a standing government. The standing army is only an arm of the standing government. The government itself, which is only the mode which the people have chosen to execute their will, is equally liable to be abused and perverted before the people can act through it. Thoreau, “Civil
If the individual does not see or understand the importance in change, they will not join a cause or a group that supports change and the state would lay stagnant. “Transcendentalism can be summed up as the individual’s quest for an “original relation to the universe.” This is much of what drove Emerson from the pulpit into his study to become a writer and thinker. It is why Henry David Thoreau went to Walden Pond.” (Felton 5) Brian Walker, writer for the Encyclopedia of Political Theory, surmises “Thoreau believed that only moral suasion and the ethical cultivation of the hearts and minds of the population will bring about lasting change in the nation because political mobilization without ethical cultivation simply empowers and gives voice to an unprincipled population. --Thoreau thus calls on the moral heroism of individual citizens as a spur to change public opinion and government