Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau,
and American Transcendentalism
If one advances confidently in the direction of
his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which
he has imagined, he will meet with a success
unexpected in common hours. He will put some
things behind, will pass an invisible boundary…
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…
– Henry David Thoreau, Walden
What is American Transcendentalism?
 Idealistic philosophy, spiritual position, and literary
movement that advocates reliance on romantic intuition
and moral human conscience
 Philosophy – a love and search for wisdom
 Belief that humans can intuitively transcend the limits of
the senses and of logic to a plane of “higher truths”
 Value spirituality and direct access to benevolent God
 Not an organized religion or ritual – it can be applied to
different religions
 Divinity of humanity, nature, intellectual pursuits, social
justice
 Roughly 1830s-1850s
Where does Transcendentalism come from?
 Spirit of Revivalism: Transcendentalism is one of many spiritual
revivals – from the rise of Unitarian churches that believed in a
more human-centered theology (rather than the strict Puritans)
 Romanticism: The emphasis on the individual and nature
becomes a spiritual connection called the over-soul.
 Progressive Era: Reform movements in Boston seek to improve
the plight of man (Suffrage, Abolition, Labor, Temperance)
Romanticism Refresher
 Reaction against Rationalism and the Enlightenment
 In NATURE and CHILDHOOD we see universal,
spiritual truths. Nature is the key to self-awareness; if you
open yourself to nature, you may receive its gifts: a
deeper, more mystical experience of life
 Poetry and art cannot be a thing of logic; down with
strict rhyming, strict meter, and structure.
 Art emphasizes inspiration, spontaneity, and naturalness
The Philosophical Precepts of Transcendentalism
 The spiritual unity of all forms of being with God, Humanity and
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Nature all sharing a universal soul, the Oversoul
The inherent goodness and divinity of Man and Nature
Observations of nature illuminate the nature of human beings.
Through understanding the elements of nature, one understands
how to rise above the corrupt and mundane struggles of life
Emphasis on self-reliance – achieved through exercising one’s own
moral and spiritual strength. The individual is the center of the
universe; therefore, all knowledge begins with self-knowledge.
Nonconformity is key; individual should reject society in order to
remain true to one’s own sense of self. Society is the source of a
corrupting and distracting materialism
Transcendence as Experiencing The Sublime in Nature
 Heightened psychological state -- overwhelming experience of awe,
reverence, comprehension
 Sense of transcendence from everyday world achieved when soul is
immersed in grandeur of nature
The Over-Soul or Universal Being
 Through self-reliance and a transcendent experience with
the sublime in nature, one can reconcile body and soul as
a part of the Over-soul or Universal Soul, the source of
all life.
 Transcendentalists try to form new society based on
metaphysical awareness, they want to purify society by
purifying hearts and minds
 Transcendentalists are lonely explorers or pilgrims
outside society and convention
“Standing on the bare
ground,— my head bathed in
the blithe air, and uplifted into
infinite space, — all mean
egotism vanishes.
I become a
transparent eye-ball;
I am nothing; I see all; the
currents of the Universal Being
circulate through me; I am part
or particle of God.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nature, 1836
Ralph Waldo Emerson, father of Transcendentalism
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Poet, essayist, and lecturer, the father of
Transcendentalism
First expressed his philosophy in his essay,
“Nature” (one of his major works)
Emerson comes from a line of Unitarian
ministers.
He breaks with the church after the death
of his first wife. He begins to question
God and the church, which he feels is too
intellectualized, too removed from direct
experience of God
Banned from Harvard for 40 years
following his divinity school address
Henry David Thoreau, practitioner of Transcendentalism
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Schoolteacher, essayist, poet
Most famous for Walden and Civil
Disobedience
Influenced environmental, civil rights and
other countercultural movements
Moved to Walden Pond and lived for a
year with little contact with society and
few creature comforts (Spartan lifestyle)
Supported abolition and opposed Fugitive
Slave Act
Jailed for not paying his taxes in
opposition to the war with Mexico (which
would add more slave states)
Dies at 45 of tuberculosis
Yoda’s a transcendentalist?
In what ways might
The Force have
some ideas in
common with the
Oversoul?
Yoda’s a transcendentalist?
In what ways might The Force have some ideas in common with the Oversoul?
Legacy of Transcendentalism
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Influenced American writers:
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Influenced the idea of civil disobedience
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Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne,
Herman Melville (anti-transcendentalists!)
Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson
Gandhi’s civil disobedience (Salt Marches)
MLK’s nonviolent resistance (particularly
“Letter from the Birmingham Jail”)
Influenced 1960’s countercultural
movements
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Hippies
Anti-war movement
Black Power movement
Feminism
What is conformity? In what ways and for what reasons do 
schools promote conformity? How can one be an individual in
a conformist society? How does conformity benefit society?
How could a person be a modern
Transcendentalist? What choices would a
person make? What would be the benefits?
The costs?
Journal extension – research another story of
a person making choices that would make
them a Transcendentalist. Could you make
the same choices? For what reasons? For
what costs? For what benefits?
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Time and space are awash here
Juxtaposition: the act of placing two things (often abstract ideas) side
by side for comparison or contrast
Example: The juxtaposition of luxury and deprivation in Countee
Cullen’s “Saturday’s Child” emphasizes the desperate divide that the
hopeless see as impossible to overcome.
who is the better man?
“It is easy in the world to
live after the world's
opinion; it is easy in
solitude to live after our
own; but the great man is
he who in the midst of
the crowd keeps with
perfect sweetness the
independence of
solitude.”
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson
“I thrive best on solitude.
If I have had a companion
only one day in a week
(unless it were one or two I
could name), I find that the
value of the week to me has
been seriously affected. It
dissipates my days, and
often it takes me another
week to get over it.”
-- Henry David Thoreau
the better man debate
Despite their many similarities in belief, Emerson and
Thoreau see the way that a person opposes society in some
fundamentally different ways, and they express their beliefs
in different ways. As well, Lawrence and Lee portray the
men in very different lights – each man with his strengths
and weaknesses.
Using your knowledge of the characters and your
inferences of what their actions reveal about their identity
and values, decide…
who is the better man? and why?
The Transcendental Club (ironic?)
 A group of like-minded thinkers that rises up around Concord,
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Massachusetts—kind of artists’ colony
Most are wealthy and liberal – so they have the time and leisure to
ponder philosophical matters
Transcendentalist Club begins
in 1836—writing, reading,
reform projects
The Dial: published by the the
Transcendentalist Club from
1840-1929
Utopian communities—
groups to escape American
materialism
Brook Farm