Essays on Transcendentalism

Individual progress is galvanized by one’s mentality which cultivates authenticity and rejects imitation. In Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Self-Reliance, Transcendentalist principles are a recurring matter which yearn towards individuality within oneself and exhibit the adoption of foreign principles as a lack of possession and loss of...

Transcendentalism is a philosophical and social movement that was developed by different philosophers and first applied in New England. Transcendentalism is opposed and can be described as the direct opposite of rationalism. Individualism on the other hand is the ability to acquire freedom over self...

After Septimus’ suicide, we encounter Peter Walsh hearing the “light, high bell of the ambulance,” and deeming it, in his mind, “one of the triumphs of civilization” (151). He ponders the “efficiency, organization, the communal spirit,” of the city, thereby allowing the ambulance to pick...

Hilda “H.D” Doolittle uses heavily-allusive imagist poetry to redefine gender-roles and contradict the characterization of women as delicate and fragile. H.D pulls from ancient Greek literature to write strong not-traditionally-feminine women into her own current culture and re-inscribe traditionally feminine figures — Helen of Troy,...

“Wide Open Spaces” by the Dixie Chicks is a clear example of a song with Transcendental lyrics. It is about a girl leaving home to achieve her goals in life, an example of the American dream. “A place in the clouds, a foundation of stone”...

Have you ever wondered what would have happened if the Magna Carta had not been written in the year 1215? Well, according to a large percentage of historians, we probably would not even be able to vote, or we would be in war, or women...

The Autobiography Walden, written by Henry David Thoreau shows the impact Transcendentalism had on Thoreau’s outlook on life. In the book Walden, Thoreau uses long informal sentences, many rhetorical strategies throughout his writing and is partially expressing his feelings on Transcendentalism and the main three...

Henry David Thoreau was a famous American transcendentalist who turned to the environment for inspiration. Thoreau built a cabin at Walden Pond and lived there alone for a little over two years before he published his book, Walden, which was about his time spent living...