College is one of the periods of life where there is most growth, both personally and academically. Going to college is a very challenging yet rewarding experience. It brings people out of their comfort zones personally, whereas academically, people get to focus more on what they are good at. In my case, it will be a challenge to adapt to the college environment at the same time that it will be very comfortable to finally study subjects that truly interest me. This exciting challenge is the main reason I want to go to college. Most people want to go to college to get a degree and earn a lot of money, which leads them to more expensive and selective colleges. I, on the other hand, intend to focus more on the course and the subjects I will study.…
The movie Wild is a journey film about a woman escaping a destructive life and turning to the outdoors to cleanse her mind and assist her in thinking clearly. The main character Cheryl, played by Reese Witherspoon, chooses to hike one of the longest and toughest trails in the country, and while impressively unprepared, she sticks to her wits and treks on. A substantial portion of the transcendentalist midst is relating yourself to, appreciating and taking advantage of nature; Cheryl is able to do this and use the world, heaven, around her to help her own spirit and…
Some aspects of Transcendentalism can be applied in today's society, while others have lost their relevance due to the changes of social and economic conditions since the time of Thoreau. The Transcendentalists' goal was to create a Utopia in America. They believed in a society without rules in which you would be free to do whatever you wanted as long as it did not infringe on the freedom or well-being of others. The concept of what is a Utopia is different for every person. In today's densely populated countries it appears almost impossible to do anything that does not affect or infringe upon someone else.…
Transcendentalism and Anti-Transcendentalism have almost polar opposite views of human nature. They have opposing views on acquiring wisdom and trust. Also, Transcendentalism and Anti transcendentalism have conflicting optimistic and pessimistic views.…
Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson are considered two of the most influential and moving transcendentalist writers of their time. These two transcendentalist authors celebrated the divine equality of each individual in their work. Their beliefs opposed the trendy materialist views on life and expressed the eagerness for freedom of the individual from fabricated restraints. Both authors thoroughly studied and embraced nature, as well as encouraged individualism and nonconformity.…
Transcendentalism focuses on abstract concepts such as minimalism, individualism, and anti-materialism, and places emphasis on breaking society’s standards and living a “pure” lifestyle. The individuals who embrace transcendentalism express the qualities through interactions with others and with nature. One individual who fits the description is Chris McCandless, a man who viewed modern life with distaste to the extent of abandoning his former life, family, and friends in favor of adventure. The traits he exhibited and the actions he chose strongly reflected transcendental values, and because he portrayed these traits so well, he serves as a beacon to everyone what a transcendentalist should aspire to be.…
Some of the songs on the CD aren’t exactly clear on their transcendentalist properties, so I decided to just be Thoreau (yes that is a pun) and go through and define the songs’ transcendentalist properties.…
The Second Great Awakening was a religious revival movement in the mid 1800 (19th century); the movement revealed romanticism which mainly included enthusiasm, appeal to the super-natural (extraterrestrial), and emotion; it rejected the skeptical of enlightenment. The theory of the movement began around the 1790s but it gained its popularity around the 1800s, by the 1850s the movement was at its peak (climax). The awakening arose mainly in the Baptist and Methodist congregations due to the preachers being the lead of the movement. The second great awakening gave rise to popular meetings where people gathered together to talk about logic. These gatherings lead up to what was known as Transcendentalism.…
I believe Chris McCandless enjoyed the idea of transcendentalism. This is a philosophy that says; thought/spiritual things are more real than human experiences. This is shown throughout the book, Into the Wild, based off of his wanting to be away from society.…
(E. O. Wilson). In the novel, Into the Wild author Jon Krakauer not only examines Chris McCandless’ life and his actions but also shares his own past actions and how they relate to Chris, bringing light to why Chris did what he did. Every person needs to find their own key to satisfaction, McCandless’s happened to be the transcendentalist beliefs of nature being the only substance required for happiness. Jon Krakauer supports the dependence upon nature by explaining why someone would take radical actions, like McCandless, to experience the life written about by some of the world’s most famous transcendentalist writers. As Krakauer shares in the…
The transcendentalist movement hit America full force by the mid 19th century, crafting a passionate spiritual idealism in its wake and leaving a unique mark on the history of American literature. Transcendentalism stems from the broader Romanticist time period, which depends on intuition rather than reasoning. Transcendentalism takes a step further into the realm of spirituality with the principle that in order to discover the divine truth that the individual seeks, he or she must transcend, or exceed, the “everyday human experience in the physical world” (“Elements of Literature: Fifth Course” 146). Nature, the physical world, is seen as a doorway to the divine world; beings can cross over into this divine world by not only observing nature, but also looking within themselves. As a result, individuality and self-assurance are seen as virtues, since they come from the heart of the individual. William Cullen Bryant and his poem Thanatopsis, Ralph Waldo Emerson’s The American Scholar, and Walt Whitman’s A Noiseless Patient Spider all display fundamental characteristics of Transcendentalism.…
American Transcendentalism began as a protest against the general state of culture and society during the 1700s, and in particular, the state of intellectualism. Among the core beliefs of American Transcendentalists was an ideal spiritual state that 'transcends ' the physical and empirical and is only realized through the individual 's intuition, rather than through the doctrines of established religions. Transcendentalism is also largely about exposing the hypocrisy in our society. Transcendentalism is questioning societal norms, and it exposes these hypocrisies through its desire to spread broader ideas about, religion, education, literature, and philosophy. Transcendentalism is also largely about love and romanticism. Both hypocrisy and the concept of true love are heavily present in Hawthorne 's novel.…
My visual project of transcendentalism is a wreath with pictures and symbols of each principal from the chart. The first principle used is nature. Transcendentalists believed “We should live close to nature, for it is our greatest teacher. Nature is emblematic, and understanding its language and lessons can bring us closer to god. In fact, Nature = God. The words Nature, God Universe, Over-Soul, etc. all mean the same thing. They call it Brahma. Brahma, or God, is everything, but nothing in particular”. I displayed nature through a wreath and flowers, they symbolize christmas, a holiday based on God’s son. It also stands for how beautiful God made nature. The second principle used is God is omnipresent. “God is everywhere and in everything, so there is…
The Transcendentalist Movement is known as an American literary, political and philosophical movement of the 1830s that was able to establish a clear voice for Americans. From conclusions drawn throughout Transcendentalism, there is a belief on a higher reality that is ultimately received by human reasoning. In the early nineteenth century, the movement followed with the belief that organized religion, government and other forms of social institutions corrupt the purity of each individual within society. Transcendentalism suggests that individuals have the capability of discovering higher truth by the use of intuition. Now this movement is highly distinguished from previous literary movements such as Romanticism.…
Transcendentalism according to the oxford dictionary; “It was a movement that developed in the New England around the 1836 in reaction to rationalism. That, in order to understand the nature of reality, one must first examine and analyze the reasoning process that governs the nature of experience” Ralph Waldo Emerson a clergy who left ministering explained in his book that “in the quest for self-fulfillment, individuals should work for a communion with the natural world” The authors of transcendentalism promoted individualism, encouraged people to look into themselves for answers to life’s difficult questions. And also not to conform to society’s expectations but listen to our instincts.…