Honors English 11
Transcendentalism Project
Name
Transcendentalism is an important area of study in American lit, not just because it
represents one of the major time periods of literature, but also because it has probably
influenced American society more significantly than many other literary movements. In
order to reinforce this ongoing impact, each of you will be looking into our recent past
for examples. Review the most important elements of Transcendentalism –
Nonconformity, Self-Reliance, Optimism & Confidence in Human Perfectibility,
Respect & Importance of Nature, and Nonviolent Resistance – and then find
examples of how they have outlived Emerson and Thoreau.
Your culminating assignment for this unit requires you to complete three interrelated
projects:
1:– Twentieth-Century People/Events Influenced by Transcendentalism
Research and document two different people/movements/events that demonstrate the
influence of Transcendentalism on life in the twentieth century. You need to provide
information about each of the people/movements/events, using specific information –
Who, What, Where, When, Why, and How – from at least three different sources. (Your
sources must be included in the Works Cited page you will also be required to compile.)
Then you must show how the movement you have selected is similar to the ideas of
Emerson and/or Thoreau by citing specific quotes from these Transcendental writers.
You may also supplement this information with photos or other graphics. In addition,
provide hyperlinks to any sources you’ve used that appear online or that may help
viewers better understand the event you’ve selected.
2:– Transcendentalism in Popular Culture
Locate two different expressions of Transcendental ideas from contemporary popular
culture. These expressions may be in the form of song lyrics, movies, television,
newspaper editorials, commercials, and comics. Ideally, you can upload your choice to
the wiki; if not, provide a hyperlink. (Once again, you will need to include these sources
on your Works Cited page.) Each should demonstrate a different Transcendental value.
For each, provide an explanation of its Transcendental thinking as well as a parallel
idea and quote from the works of Emerson and/or Thoreau.
3:– Works Cited Page
Use correct MLA form to create a Works Cited Page that includes all the sources you
used in your research. I’ve included the format for the excerpts from Emerson and
Thoreau; these should be added to no fewer than eight additional sources (six for
Project 1 and two for Project 2). The grade for this piece of the assignment will largely
be a reflection of your correct use of MLA form.
1 - Twentieth-Century People/Events Influenced by Transcendentalism
Example:
Tommie Smith and John Carlos’ black power salute at the 1968 Summer
Olympics.
On October 16, 1968, Tommie Smith won the 200-meter dash at the Summer Olympics
in Mexico City. Teammate John Carlos finished third. Smith, an African-American, had
been active in the Olympic Project for Human Rights (OPHR). This movement had
originally encouraged black athletes to boycott the games as a way of bringing to the
world’s attention America’s civil rights movement, but too many athletes (justifiably)
didn’t want to give up a chance to compete in the Olympics. Consequently, individual
athletes who felt strongly looked for other ways to make a statement.
When Smith and Carlos mounted the medal stand, each went shoeless, rather wearing
black socks that symbolized black poverty. Smith wore a black scarf to signify black
pride. To show solidarity with blue-collar workers in the U.S., Carlos wore his tracksuit
top unzipped; he said the necklace of beads he wore "were for those individuals that
were lynched, or killed and that no-one said a prayer for, that were hung and tarred. It
was for those thrown off the side of the boats in the middle passage." All three athletes
on the medal stand – Smith, Carlos, and Australian sprinter Peter Norman – wore
OPHR badges. As Smith told ABC-TV announcer Howard Cosell in Mexico City, “My
raised right hand stood for the power in black America. Carlos’ raised left hand stood for
the unity of black America. Together they formed an arch of unity and power.” But the
most provocative part of the protest was the Black Power salute both Smith and Carlos
offered, their fists covered in black gloves and raised in defiance. Even as the "StarSpangled Banner" played, Smith and Carlos, their heads bowed, lifted their fists, an
image captured by countless cameras and splashed across the covers of newspapers
worldwide.
Smith and Carlos were finally honored for their contribution to the civil rights movement
in 2005 when this statue immortalized their brave act of civil disobedience. Source:
Spartan Daily
Smith and Carlos were not the only athletes to use their victories as platforms for
protest, but they were the most reviled. The crowd booed them as they left the medal
stand, and the International Olympic Committee president Avery Brundage ordered
Smith and Carlos suspended from the U.S. team and banned from the Olympic Village.
Originally the U.S. team refused to abide by this order, but when Brundage threatened
the entire U.S. track team, the two were expelled from the Games. Once home, they
faced public criticism and abuse, and they and their families faced death threats.
Although Smith and Carlos would probably trace their inspiration to civil rights leaders
like Martin Luther King, Jr., their protest fits nearly all the criteria laid out by Henry David
Thoreau in "Resistance to Civil Government." Thoreau wrote "If a plant cannot live
according to its nature; it dies; and so a man." How could Smith or Carlos or any other
African-American citizen whose civil rights were limited in anyway "live according to its
nature"? In such a situation, Thoreau emphasized the need to respond: "…if…requires
you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law." Smith and Carlos
didn’t break the law, but their silent protest challenged the expected propriety of the
Olympics, thereby offending many who were quite content to ignore the minority’s
limited access to fair and equal treatment under the law.
Although Smith and Carlos were surprised by the vehement response to their protest,
they accepted it just as Thoreau willingly went to jail as the penalty for his nonviolent
protest. Thoreau even welcomed prison as "the true place for a just man…". Thankfully
most people came to see the protest of Smith and Carlos as a brave, even righteous act
that, in its own way, changed the lives of African-Americans for the better.
2 – Transcendentalism in Popular Culture
Example:
"Wide Open Spaces"
Who doesn't know what I'm talking about
Who's never left home, who's never struck out
To find a dream and a life of their own
A place in the clouds, a foundation of stone
Many precede and many will follow
A young girl's dream no longer hollow
It takes the shape of a place out west
But what it holds for her, she hasn't yet guessed
[Chorus]
She needs wide open spaces
Room to make her big mistakes
She needs new faces
She knows the high stakes
She traveled this road as a child
Wide eyed and grinning, she never tired
But now she won't be coming back with the rest
If these are life's lessons, she'll take this test
[Repeat Chorus]
She knows the high stakes
As her folks drive away, her dad yells, "Check the oil!"
Mom stares out the window and says, "I'm leaving my girl"
She said, "It didn't seem like that long ago"
When she stood there and let her own folks know
[Repeat Chorus]
She knows the highest stakes
She knows the highest stakes
She knows the highest stakes
She knows the highest stakes
These lyrics, performed by the Dixie Chicks, reflect a number of Transcendentalism’s
interests. The young woman in the song longs to fulfill her dreams and sets out “wide
eyed and grinning” to discover them for herself. This reflects the optimism of
Transcendentalism much as Emerson does when he suggests that each of us should
trust ourselves (“Self-Reliance”). There’s even a suggestion of nonconformity in the line
“…now she won’t be coming back with the rest.” Emerson would have supported her in
that as is evidenced when he says, “…none but he knows what that is which he can do,
nor does he know until he has tried” (“Self-Reliance”). Further, she turns to “wide open
spaces,” which reminds me of Emerson’s suggestion that we look to the stars to
discover truth (Nature, Chapter 1). The strongest Transcendental link for me is the line
“a place in the clouds, a foundation of stone.” She’s dreamed of her future and now
sets out to make that dream real. Whenever I hear that, I think of Thoreau in Walden:
“If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should
be. Now put the foundations under them.”
3 – Works Cited Page
"1968 Olympics Black Power salute." Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. 2009.
Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.. 27 Feb 2009
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1968_Olympics_Black_Power_salute>.
Barrera, Cheeto. "SJSU Honors '68 Olympics Activists With Sculpture." Santa Cruz
Independent Media Center 17 10 2005 2 Mar 2009
<www.thespartandaily.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2005/10/18/435690286e5e5 >.
Davis. David. "Two runners, once united with Olympic gesture, are now divided," Las
Angeles Times 08 07 2008. Las Angeles Times. 2 Mar 2009
<http://articles.latimes.com/2008/jul/08/sports/sp-forty8>
Emerson, Ralph Waldo. The Best of Ralph Waldo Emerson. New York: Walter J. Black,
1941.
Emerson, Ralph Waldo. "Self-Reliance." The Language of Literature: American
Literature. 2000. Arthur N. Applebee, et all, Ed. Evanston, Illinois: McDougal
Littell, 2000.
"Fists of Freedom: The Story of the ‘68 Summer Games." HBO, 22 February 2009.
Gettings, John. "Civil Disobedience: Black Medalists Raise Fists for Civil Rights
Movement." Infoplease.com 2 Mar 2009
<http://www.infoplease.com/spot/summer-olympics-mexico-city.html>.
Gibson, Susan. “Wide Open Spaces,” Wide Open Spaces. Perf. Dixie Chicks. CD.
Monument Records, 1998.
Thoreau, Henry David. "Civil Disobedience." The Language of Literature: American
Literature. 2000. Arthur N. Applebee, et all, Ed. Evanston, Illinois: McDougal
Littell, 2000.
Thoreau, Henry David. "Walden." The Language of Literature: American Literature.
2000. Arthur N. Applebee, et all, Ed. Evanston, Illinois: McDougal Littell, 2000.