Transcendentalists

The Transcendentalist Movement
There were many different philosophies that writers introduced throughout the years of 1840-1860. The movement was a branch of the Romantic Movement. The transcendentalists were a political and literary movement that consisted of many intellectuals. Authors such as Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson mainly focused on individual virtue and happiness which depends upon self-realization. They believed strongly in the concept of Carpe Diem and that all knowledge begins with your own self-knowledge. They pressed to view the world very optimistic and thought that political parties and religion corrupts ones self’s purity and individualism. Although society is taught to conform and obey, transcendentalists believed in the power of self-reliance and independence, which was believed to bring you to your true self.
Famous Transcendentalist writers such as Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson, strongly believed in looking at everything your own way. They stress the thought of having a different perspective and strive to find your own voice because the longer you wait to begin, the less likely you are to find it at all. Henry David Thoreau’s father was a big impact on his life when he was young because his father was the leader of the first protest at Harvard University in 1766 called the “butter Rebellion”. The Butter Rebellion was nothing more than protesting about the rancid butter quality, but what moved Henry was that his father was the first to ever express his true feelings, which was looked down upon at such a prestigious school. Even though Henry was not yet born, he was informed of this in his teens. This was the start to his writings and exerts. Thoreau said most men live lives’ of quiet desperation. He tried pressure other people to strike out and find new ground. Just when you think you know something, you have to look at it in a different way. Even if it is trivial or wrong, you must endeavor to find a diverse way of looking at it. Thoreau believed that society and religion taints ones self-purity so much that he moved into a small cabin in the middle of the woods by himself to get away from all of the corruption back in the city. He had a fascination in botany and nature in which he believed was the backbone to staying wholesome. Nature was so “down to earth”, that it could never be changed or corrupted no matter what. Thoreau says that there was no other way to stay pure other than taking all of the impurity out of the equation. Most of Emerson’s knowledge was gained from his own findings and research. Ralph, like his colleague, went to Harvard College. They both shared the same views and philosophies in life and making both experts of transcendentalists writing.
Thoreau’s most famous essay was called “Civil Disobedience”. In this, Thoreau says that people should not authorize governments to overrule them and allow the government to make them mediators of bias ways. Slavery and the Mexican-American war had a big impact on his writing because they both were the outcome of people demonstrating acquiescence and letting the government do what they want to do without protesting or stating that slavery was infringing their rights. Thoreau doesn’t just say that the government is a little corrupt or unjust, but that the government is the proxy of corruption and injustice. He says that the verdict of a person's morality is not essentially lesser to the decisions of a political body or majority, and so it is not necessary to promote an approval for the law, so much as for the right. Henry tells the people in the essay not to blame slavery on pro-slavery southerners but to put the blame on those who were more interested in commerce and agricultural. He states that there are thousands of people who opposed to do it but did nothing to stop it. Martin Luther King Jr. demonstrated the beliefs of civil disobedience by wanting to go to jail rather than paying taxes. Mahatma Gandhi also used a lot of civil disobedience in his essay called “Indian Opinion”. This essay strongly portrays the beliefs in transcendentalist ideals however, Emerson’s “Walden” really lists examples on how he coped with all of the corruption at the time.
Emerson had many famous writings but his most famous and influential one was Walden. The book Walden is about Emerson wanting to get away from all of the impurities in the city so he built himself a little cabin in the woods next to pond called Walden. In Walden, Emerson talks about how he wanted to get out of the city to escape all of the political and social impurities that were being imputed into all of the peoples brain. “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived”. In the quote from his book, he is saying that he went to the woods to find the essentials of life and that when he was there he discovered that he haven’t lived. He goes on to say that he wanted to “suck out the marrow of life.” This is an example of him wanting to live life extraordinary, which is a main influence of transcendentalist’s ways. Another quote that was in many songs and movies was "If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far way”. He says that everyone should make their own beat and not follow what everyone does because it doesn’t matter what they think but it matters what you think and what your own perspective is. This was used in a very important movie that was made in 1989 that portrayed the philosophies of Emerson’s and Thoreau’s transcendentalist movement. In the movie The Dead Poets Society, there are many different practices of transcendentalist ways. The movie is about a seventh senior at Welton, an elite prep school. They have a new English teacher, Mr. Keating, that’s teaching methods that are unconventional to Welton’s standards. This teacher influences the kids to now believe in the ways of Carpe Diem. Carpe Diem means to seize the day and to make life astonishing. He tells the students that they can call him “oh captain my captain”, which is referring to a poem by Walt Whitman. Keating makes his students constantly exercise the philosophies of transcendentalism. One way was when he proposing a mathematic formula that rates the value of poetry in which he finds vile and makes the kids rip it out. Another instance was when he stands on his desk and says that he stands on it because he has to constantly remind himself to look at things differently and then has all of the students do the same. This is exercising that you should always look at everything a different way and make your reason why you look at it that way. One character that was significantly affected by Keating’s teachings, was Neil. He had a very demanding father that was practically telling him what he was going to do with his own life. When Neil heard that there was tryouts for the schools play, he wanted to do it because he wanted to try something new and do something with his life outside of AP classes and homework. His father was not happy when he found out that Neil was in a play, even though Neil had perfect grades. Neil’s father demands that he resigns from being the head part in the play but Neil refuses. After the play, his dad comes into his dorm and tell him that he is going to a military school to prepare him for Harvard. Neil was unable to deal with the future that awaits him so he commits suicide. This is the outcome of someone refusing to conform.
Transcendentalist’s ways have been around since 1840 and are still being used as a way of life till today. Thoreau and Emerson have helped shape the new philosophies that suggest seizing the day and making your life extraordinary. Many famous figures and history have used their writing as a backbone to many speeches and beliefs during slavery. The idea of independence and self-reliance was and is still a big way of looking at life even hundreds of years after the first published Transcendentalist book was published.