Examples Of Transcendentalism
Transcendentalism, the ideal that individuality and intuition run one’s life, based on the ideas of the rejection of materialism and the quest for truth. Ralph Waldo Emerson is the center of the American transcendentalism, laying out the foundation for it that many others builded upon, such as Henry David Thoreau and Immanuel Kant. In Emerson’s work Nature, the fundamentals of a transcendentalist is set with “build therefore your own world”(74). Emerson believes that a true transcendentalist follows their own self-made path towards their truth, towards their happiness. As for what causes the quest for truth in an individual, it all depends on the individual’s inner voice, as seen with Malala Yousafzai, Aung San Suu Kyi, and even the band The
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After the Taliban attacked her for advocating education for women in the Middle-East, Yousafzai proclaimed “weakness, fear and hopelessness die, strength, power and courage was born” (qtd. in theirworld.org) in her address to the United Nations Youth Assembly. This action is what has made Yousafzai such an icon and activist, for standing up for her truth and following her own path towards activism. She has even had more than three-million people sign the Malala Petition for education reform worldwide. In Malala Yousafzai’s case, what made her break social laws was the desire for change, the desire for an education, which is taboo in many Taliban-controlled areas due to the radical interpretation of Islam within the group. Many other female activists also existed in …show more content…
In The Doors’ song “People are Strange” the non-conformist view becoming mainstream is shown and represented with strangeness. In the song, the lead singer Jim Morrison sings the lyric, “streets are uneven when you’re down”. This lyric, as practical as it may seem, reveals how the character they speak of is walking down a path of their own, a path that has not been travelled by. This character feeling “down’ has sparked this quest for their happiness, or their truth. This influence of seeking one’s personal truth is what made The Doors break the social construct of conformity. As a band in popular society, they have also influenced many other people to become such non-conformists and to follow their own self-made path towards
After the Taliban attacked her for advocating education for women in the Middle-East, Yousafzai proclaimed “weakness, fear and hopelessness die, strength, power and courage was born” (qtd. in theirworld.org) in her address to the United Nations Youth Assembly. This action is what has made Yousafzai such an icon and activist, for standing up for her truth and following her own path towards activism. She has even had more than three-million people sign the Malala Petition for education reform worldwide. In Malala Yousafzai’s case, what made her break social laws was the desire for change, the desire for an education, which is taboo in many Taliban-controlled areas due to the radical interpretation of Islam within the group. Many other female activists also existed in …show more content…
In The Doors’ song “People are Strange” the non-conformist view becoming mainstream is shown and represented with strangeness. In the song, the lead singer Jim Morrison sings the lyric, “streets are uneven when you’re down”. This lyric, as practical as it may seem, reveals how the character they speak of is walking down a path of their own, a path that has not been travelled by. This character feeling “down’ has sparked this quest for their happiness, or their truth. This influence of seeking one’s personal truth is what made The Doors break the social construct of conformity. As a band in popular society, they have also influenced many other people to become such non-conformists and to follow their own self-made path towards