Transcendentalism Overview

     Transcendentalism is the philosophy that urges one to get out and question reality and society. It started after the era of romanticism and marks a new time of thinking for America. It urges the common man to ascend to a higher level of thinking through breaking away from common conceptions and ideas in order to come to their own conclusions about life. The main goal of transcendental thinkers is to find the purpose and meaning about life, and they believe that things like society inhibit that ability to discover beyond the normal meaning of things. Ideas like individualism, self-reliance, optimism, and intuition are all important to transcendentalists, and are common themes within transcendental writings and beliefs. Two very important transcendental writers were Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, and both had incredible writings on the topic of transcendentalism. In his work "Nature," Emerson says,"In the wilderness, I find something more dear and connate than in streets or villages (Emerson 181)." This quote shows how transcendalists believed in breaking away from society and finding meaning in nature. Emerson, in "Self Reliance," also says, "Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string (Emerson 183)." He is saying in this that every man needs to rely on himself to find truth and meaning. Emerson's student, Thoreau, in his book "Walden" states, "We are determined to be starved before we are hungry. Men say that a stitch

in time saves nine, and so they take a thousand stitches to-day to save nine to-morrow. As for work, we haven’t any of any consequence (Thoreau 205)." He is arguing that our common conceptions are holding us back from appreciating life. Overall, transcendentalism is the goal of a man to be greater and go beyond what he knows and understands.