The Role Of Individualism In The Night Thoreau Spent In Jail

[Em]brace Oneself: Transcendentalism is Coming
Despite the fact that strength can be found in numbers, creativity most often cannot. Does a plethora of strength celebrate more meaning than immense creative freedoms? The movement of Transcendentalism explores this concept from the year 1840 through the exposition of the American Civil War, following the Gothic and Romanticism movements and preceding the Realism movement. At this time in the United States, a shift of personal experience and writing styles occurred, from a previous radical unity to the new pertinent individualism. The new movement welcomed in slower, more self-centric ways to live, survive, and prioritize everything about American life. A couple of the most influential Transcendental
Thoreau also wrote plethora of works, all of which discussed and elaborated on his transcendental lifestyle and habits. Emerson contributed a creative body of works about his philosophical aspect of individualistic thinking and reflection. Thoreau, took action on Emerson’s ideas to fully embody Transcendentalism. Willingness to indulge in self-discovery yields the opportunity for true qualities to be discovered and embraced. New ideas found within oneself stem from a strong belief in, and taking a stand for, the thoughts of personal mind and mouth. Furthermore, taking a chance by altering one’s routine can reward an person with creative individualism and new perspectives. New ideas are the rewards born from self-trust that comes from finding one's own way in Transcendentalism because it proves crucial
Transcendentalist authors strived to portray, both to their readers and to themselves, the importance of clutching onto the details of one’s mind, the ideas that one creates, and the uniqueness of such thoughts. Other noteworthy writers outside of mid-nineteenth century America agreed with the benefits of individualistic creativity, including Biblical, Greek, English, and many others. As Ralph Waldo Emerson writes in his essay “Self-Reliance,” authors not unlike himself “set at naught books and traditions and spoke not what men, but what they thought” (Emerson). A Greek thinker and writer, Plato, never held back his thoughts when speaking out at socratic circles; instead he stood proudly and gave life to his ideas with the eloquent words that spilled from his lips. Moses, although not blessed with the same eloquence of speech as Plato, delivered God’s message to the Pharaoh in his own style and with a unique perspective. The differences between transcendental perspectives are extremely imminent, with each person and each thought dissimilar to all others. The resulting uniqueness, an essential quality of Transcendentalism, when expressed by divergent minds unhinged new paths for people to explore. In the expository pages of a later-written play, Henry David Thoreau is quoted saying: “‘If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.