Examples Of Transcendentalism

Transcendentalism Today The transcendentalist movement started in 1836 as a reaction to the age of reason. It challenged everyone’s reliance on science and facts and emphasized imagination and self-thought. There were many influential writers who are said to have started the transcendentalist movement. Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne are among there great transcendentalist writers. Their stories, The Ambitious Guest and The Fall of the House of Usher embody the nature of transcendentalists.
Transcendentalists had a deep appreciation for nature and the fact that it can’t be controlled by man, many writers during this time put a big emphasis on the tranquility and peace that comes along with being in nature away from the rest of the
world. They also felt like people shouldn’t get too involved in religion and politics because it was irrelevant (McIntyre 2). The transcendentalists were tired of everyone always trying to use science to prove whether something was right or wrong, they believed that the individual should be the judge of what is fact or fiction. In addition to that they believed that people should be free to do what they want not what they are told to do. They also believed “in what Emerson called "The Over-Soul' —a spiritual presence that pervades all aspects of man and nature. Emerson referred to it as: "that great nature in which we rest—that Unity, that Over-Soul, within which every man's particular being is contained and made one with all other— We live in succession, in division, in parts, in particles” (Mclntyre 2). Basically they believed that their minds and bodies transcend past their physical state.
At this point in history Americans are starting to question whether slavery should still be going on or not. People were starting to want to rebel against slavery but they were too afraid. That’s why the transcendentalist movement had to start off as a very secretive sort of society, to the public they looked like radical people who shouldn’t be encouraged. Another issue that raised during this time was women’s rights. With all of this free thinking and self-reliance, people were starting to think….hmmmm maybe everyone really should be treated equally. The transcendentalist movement played a big part in shaping America as the nation that it is today. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s, The Ambitious Guest, it is very evident that the story was highly influenced by transcendentalists.
First off, the family living in the hotel have an agreement with the mountain, if that doesn’t scream transcendentalist then I don’t know what does. The agreement that they have is that as long as the family keeps running the hotel and taking in travelers then they will be safe. As soon as the mountain feels like the family is taking it for granted it send them a sign “’the old mountain has thrown a stone at us, for fear we should forget him,"’ said the landlord, recovering himself.” One day however this man stops by the hotel. He starts talking about what kind of legacy he wants to leave saying “"as yet, I have done nothing. Where I to vanish from the earth to-morrow, none would know so much of me as you: that a nameless youth came up at nightfall from the valley of the Saco”. The family suddenly starts to think about what kind of legacy they want to leave and they finally start to think that it’s time for them to venture out of their home and see what else there is besides the mountain. As soon as the get deep in these thoughts an avalanche hits, they leave their house, and boom they all die. The story tells the reader that one should be appreciative of nature because at any given time it can do whatever it wants with no
explanation. In Edgar Allan’s short story The Fall of the House of Usher a man named Roderick invites his childhood friend over to come and help him bury his dying twin sister named Madeline. When the narrator arrives at the house he notices that the house has a huge crack in the middle much like Roderick and Madeline do. The narrator described the house as following “upon the bleak walls --upon the vacant eye-like windows --upon a few rank sedges --and upon a few white trunks of decayed trees --with an utter depression of soul which I can compare to no earthly sensation more properly than to the after-dream of the reveller upon opium”. Once again nature is being personified. Madeline and physically paralyzed and Roderick is mentally paralyzed. If they were one person they would represent the huge crack in the house. Throughout the story the reader can tell that the family is one with the house, so basically the fate of the house is that fate of their lives. In the end everything is destroyed. Madeline transcends her body and Roderick transcends his mind. Both stories seem to personify nature in a major way, both the house and the mountain are talked about as if they are people. In addition to the personifications there is a huge theme of self-thought in both stories. Throughout Poe’s story we are in the narrators mind, as well as we are in the minds of the family in Hawthorne’s story. Poe’s story is however much more dark and twisted. None the less both stories have a huge transcendental feel. The effects of transcendentalism can still be felt today. The American public, especially the youth seems to be obsessed with being different and avoiding all things mainstream. No one wants to conform to society and everyone wants their voices heard. Also there is a big environmental feel in today’s society. We see it in the majority of our ads now a days. It’s all about getting fit and becoming one with nature. Many of the authors of the transcendentalist movement have effected life as we know it even in today’s society.