+ transcendentalism ralph waldo emerson henry david thoreau
TRANSCRIPT
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Transcendentalism
Ralph Waldo EmersonHenry David Thoreau
+Ralph Waldo Emerson
Best Friends with Thoreau
Self-Taught- He was a lecturer and writer
Father died at a young age
Aunt influenced him in philosophy
Attended Harvard
Was a teacher and minister at the 2nd Church of Boston
Married to Ellen Tucker
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Walt Whitman praised Emerson the writer
Moved away from Calvinist ideas in his later life
Started the Transcendental Club- Remember we just learned what transcendental ideas were last class on wksh
Placed great value in intuition
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Oversoul- belief that one being connects us all
Transcentalism was a religious movement in Europe but only a literary movement in America
Emerson believed that people were innately good
+4 characteristics of Transcendentalists 1. belief that people are innately divine
2. individuals can discover truth through nature rather than religious doctrine
3. they wanted to be self- reliant (rely on themselves rather than other people for everything)
4. nature is a symbol of the spirit- found truth through intuition and it can be found through nature
+Henry David Thoreau
1817-1862- born in Concord, MA
Mother was a boarder- met all kinds of people
Moved to Walden Pond July 4, 1845
At 28 he was considered a failure
He only lasted two weeks as a teacher because he would not whip a child
Attended Harvard
Hawthorne wrote to newspaper complaining about Thoreau
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Never married
He received independence in college
He wore a green jacket to chapel
English literature and German philosophy influenced Thoreau into Transcendentalism
+Walden Pond
Walden Pond was only 2 miles from Concord- not very “self-reliant”
He went to town once a month
Thoreau claims people are one-dimensional- we get caught up in living
Walden is considered successful because of blending of style and content
Only spent two years here
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He believed that America was extending their land for more slave holding territory
He spent two nights in jail because he wouldn’t pay his pole tax
In response to his experience in jail he wrote “Resistance to Civil Government”
Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. were influenced by this essay
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Thoreau died from TB
His aunt asked when he was dying if he had made his peace with God. He replied, “ I didn’t know we had ever quarreled.”