Transcendentalism Essays (554 words) - Lecturers, Concord

Transcendentalism Transcendentalism was an important movement in literature that occurred during the years of 1836-1860. Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau were the best-known transcendentalists. Ralph Waldo Emerson gave the German philosopher, Immanuel Kant, the credit for making ?Transcendentalism? a familiar term. Kant had said that there were certain experiences that could be acquired only through ?intuitions of the mind.? In Kant's thoughts, transcendentalism was the knowledge or understanding a person gains intuitively. This, for the most part, sums up all of the transcendental writings that have been written to this day. Both Emerson and Thoreau were very similar in their thoughts on transcendentalism and personalities. Emerson was very strict on his-self and worked to make his writings spiritual. He made it clear that he wanted no followers. Emerson thought that if anyone were to copy his style of writing that the whole purpose would be defeated. He wanted his writings to inspire individuality. Thoreau was rigid and almost military-like. He cared little for group activities, and avoided organized reform movements. Emerson and Thoreau both wrote about how the world had an influence on their soul. They let the nature around them be their inspiration, and they wrote down the effects it had on them spiritually. Ralph Emerson wrote Nature, an essay about his surroundings, and the effect they had on him. Emerson said, ?Its effect is like that of a higher thought or a better emotion coming over me,?.? This quote came from Nature, which he wrote in 1836. Henry Thoreau wrote Walden, a book he wrote after keeping a journal about the nature around him while living at Walden Pond for seven years. Both of these works were prime examples of transcendentalism and its ideas and philosophies. After these works were published, writers started interpreting the idea in their own way. Today, we are still seeing the effects of Emerson and Thoreau in poems and other literature. The effect that nature has on us is, now, often a common thought among many of us. Transcendentalism is something we are well aware of because of Emerson and Thoreau, and their new ideas and theories. I am influenced most by transcendentalism when I sit underneath a clear starry sky on a warm summer evening. When you sit there, you can not help but let your mind wander. You start to realize how small you are compared to the rest of the world. The stars, which are, in reality, large and bright, are only a twinkle in the deep blue sky. While sitting there I take in the peacefulness of the night. You hear the crickets and other animals of the night and are forced to understand that humans are not alone in the world. We are accompanied everyday by so many other species, yet we do not pay attention to anyone but ourselves. I can also see a whole separate meaning and significance of nature, when I take in everything around me. It is not only our surroundings, but it is much greater. Nature has been here since the beginning of earth. The true aspects of nature have always been here. It shows what little amount of time we take up on Earth. We are nothing but a tiny dot on a never-ending time line of life. English Essays

F451-Burning of Books essays

F451-Burning of Books essays In Fahrenheit 451, author Ray Bradbury, made an infamous statement that puts the entire novel into perspective for a reader. His notorious quote, There is more than one way to burn a book, compiles the entire concept that he was trying to portray through the characters. In Fahrenheit 451, the dystopian society that was depicted destroyed books through various methods and tactics. When Bradbury said, There is more than one way to burn a book, he was referring to the fact that the society he depicted in his novel wanted to destroy their one main source of knowledge in order to make everyone think the same. In order to do this, the members of the community burnt books in various ways. Examples such as brainwashing, murder, censorship, and various other methods were used to help burn books. One way of burning a book is to brainwash a person to the point where they no longer need to rely on the knowledge within a book, instead they are absorbed in their own life. For example, Montags wife sheltered herself from the need to get the knowledge from a book. Books at this time were filled with useful knowledge, however Mildred and the rest of the community were so brainwashed that they could not understand what the books were referring to in life. Instead they turned their attention from the books that held so many thoughts and life issues and focused on non-knowledgeable items such as the televised walls. When every single person in the community neglected the knowledge within the books and focused on the same thoughts and ideas, each one of them soon began to think the same, react the same and have the same feelings as one another. They were in a sense, brainwashed into thinking alike. Their minds were not open to the various ideas and thoughts that the books contained. T his in fact was a form of burning books; the brainwashed members ...