american transcendentalism good copy[1]
TRANSCRIPT
![Page 1: American Transcendentalism Good Copy[1]](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062300/5553a2beb4c9054e0a8b597e/html5/thumbnails/1.jpg)
American Transcendentalism
“ It was a high counsel that I once heard given to a young person, always do what you are afraid to do.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
![Page 2: American Transcendentalism Good Copy[1]](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062300/5553a2beb4c9054e0a8b597e/html5/thumbnails/2.jpg)
Transcendentalism
• A literary movement in the 1830’s that established a clear “American voice”.
• Emerson first expressed his philosophy in his essay “Nature”.
• A belief in a higher reality than that achieved by human reasoning.
• Suggests that every individual is capable of discovering this higher truth through intuition.
![Page 3: American Transcendentalism Good Copy[1]](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062300/5553a2beb4c9054e0a8b597e/html5/thumbnails/3.jpg)
![Page 4: American Transcendentalism Good Copy[1]](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062300/5553a2beb4c9054e0a8b597e/html5/thumbnails/4.jpg)
• Unlike Puritans, they saw humans and nature as possessing an innate goodness.
“In the faces of men and women, I see God”-Walt Whitman
• Opposed strict ritualism and dogma of established religion.
![Page 5: American Transcendentalism Good Copy[1]](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062300/5553a2beb4c9054e0a8b597e/html5/thumbnails/5.jpg)
![Page 6: American Transcendentalism Good Copy[1]](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062300/5553a2beb4c9054e0a8b597e/html5/thumbnails/6.jpg)
Transcendentalism: The tenets:• Believed in living close to nature/importance of
nature. Everything in nature is a reflection of the Divine Soul--the source of truth and inspiration. (Helped people transcend to higher spiritual levels).
• Believed in social reform and peace—a perfect Utopia.
• Advocated self-trust/ confidence• Valued individuality/non-conformity/free
thought/intuition (over science and laws)• Advocated self-reliance/ simplicity
![Page 7: American Transcendentalism Good Copy[1]](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062300/5553a2beb4c9054e0a8b597e/html5/thumbnails/7.jpg)
![Page 8: American Transcendentalism Good Copy[1]](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062300/5553a2beb4c9054e0a8b597e/html5/thumbnails/8.jpg)
The first transcendentalists
• Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Henry David Thoreau
![Page 9: American Transcendentalism Good Copy[1]](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062300/5553a2beb4c9054e0a8b597e/html5/thumbnails/9.jpg)
![Page 10: American Transcendentalism Good Copy[1]](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062300/5553a2beb4c9054e0a8b597e/html5/thumbnails/10.jpg)
“Nature”
• Thoreau began “essential” living• Built a cabin on land owned to Emerson in
Concord, Mass. near Walden Pond• Lived alone there for two years studying nature and seeking truth within himself
![Page 11: American Transcendentalism Good Copy[1]](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062300/5553a2beb4c9054e0a8b597e/html5/thumbnails/11.jpg)
![Page 12: American Transcendentalism Good Copy[1]](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062300/5553a2beb4c9054e0a8b597e/html5/thumbnails/12.jpg)
![Page 13: American Transcendentalism Good Copy[1]](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062300/5553a2beb4c9054e0a8b597e/html5/thumbnails/13.jpg)
“Still we live meanly like ants.”“Our life is frittered away by detail.”“Why should we live with such hurry and waste of life?”“Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity. I say, let your affairs be as two or three and not a hundred or a thousand.”
![Page 14: American Transcendentalism Good Copy[1]](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062300/5553a2beb4c9054e0a8b597e/html5/thumbnails/14.jpg)
![Page 15: American Transcendentalism Good Copy[1]](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062300/5553a2beb4c9054e0a8b597e/html5/thumbnails/15.jpg)
Individuality
“How deep the ruts of tradition and conformity.”
![Page 16: American Transcendentalism Good Copy[1]](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062300/5553a2beb4c9054e0a8b597e/html5/thumbnails/16.jpg)
![Page 17: American Transcendentalism Good Copy[1]](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062300/5553a2beb4c9054e0a8b597e/html5/thumbnails/17.jpg)
“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 he hears, however measured or far away.”
![Page 18: American Transcendentalism Good Copy[1]](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062300/5553a2beb4c9054e0a8b597e/html5/thumbnails/18.jpg)