Elements of Transcendentalism with Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson was one of the most important people within the Transcendentalism movement. He had influential writings, such as "Self-Reliance" and "Nature" that served as building blocks for future transcendentalists. Emerson's ideas surrounding transcendentalism echos the fundamental ideas of transcendentalism with the many examples found in his works reflecting individualism, self-reliance, optimism, intuition.

Individualism is defined as the ability and attribute of someone who longs and is different from everyone around them. Someone who is an individual is independent from everyone else and attempts to stay that way, as that is the lifestyle they promote and enjoy. Emerson shows individualism in his work "Self Reliance," saying "There is a time in every man’s education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion (Emerson 183)." This quote represents transcendentalism because it shows that every man must be a man for himself and no one else, that imitation and envy are worthless.

Self-reliance is defined as the reliance on one's own abilities rather than the powers and abilities of others. Self-reliance is needed by most transcendentalists because it helps supports the idea that truth comes from within, rather than from the people around us. In his writing "Self-Reliance," Emerson says, "...That though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till (Emerson 183)." He is saying that a man can not rely on any one else in the world except for himself, and he will get nothing good out of life if it not from his own hands, which follows transcendentalism because one can not go beyond society and also be a part of it.

Optimism is defined as the philosophy that any situation or event has good and that nothing is all bad. There is good in everything, and there is always a second chance. In the "glass half filled" scenario, optimists believe that the glass is half full. Emerson is an optimist in "Nature" when he says, "Nature is a setting that fits equally well a comic or a mourning piece. In good health, the air is a cordial of incredible virtue. Crossing a bare common, in snow puddles, at twilight, under a clouded sky, without having in my thoughts any occurrence of special good fortune, I have enjoyed a perfect exhilaration (Emerson 181)." In all of these scenarios, Emerson finds the good in any aspect of nature, which is a very important element. There is nothing that disappoints Emerson in the woods.

Intuition is defined as the knowing of something that comes from within, rather than from experience. Intuition comes from the conscience and from instincts, and transcendentalists believe that society and reality inhibit those internal moral compasses, and that escape is an excellent way to develop your own intuition. In "Nature" Emerson says, "The lover of nature is he whose inward and outward senses are still truly adjusted to each other; who has retained the spirit of infancy even into the era of manhood (Emerson 180)." This is a representation because it talks about the senses being adjusted to each other as a result of being close to nature and understanding nature. The spirit of infancy is the essence of pure intuition because it has not yet been corrupted by society.