“Let’s have class outside today! ” Kids look forward to hearing this statement frequently in the springtime each school year; but why? It has been proven that children as well as adults learn more and at a higher level than normal when in a natural environment. Humans tend to observe and associate learned material with the natural surroundings. These people also relax and are readily available to intake more information as well as discover new facts about themselves. This is essentially the basis of transcendentalism.
Transcendentalist writers such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, as well as Henry David Thoreau and Walt Whitman, turn to nature as a role model to show people how to improve the quality of their lives by living simply, making the best of what they have, and refraining from passing judgment on others. By following nature’s example, people discover that being true to oneself is the key to living as nature does. Within Emerson’s life time, he had been married twice with four children- his first passed at the age of five from scarlet fever. He had no children with his first wife, Ellen, who died from tuberculosis. When Ellen died, Emerson became “emotionally and spiritually distraught” (Self Reliance 13).
Because of her death, in particular, Emerson resigned from the clergy. (“Ralph Waldo Emerson”).
He spent his time researching reason and meanings of life. Emerson started writing for leisure. “Emerson’s first book, Nature (1836), is perhaps the best expression of his Transcendentalism, the belief that everything in our world—even a drop of dew—is a microcosm of the universe” (“Ralph Waldo Emerson”).
The Essay on Nature 2 Man Men Life
Our age is retrospective. It builds the sepulchre's of the fathers. It writes biographies, histories, and criticism. The foregoing generations beheld God and nature face to face; we, through their eyes. Why should not we also enjoy an original relation to the universe Why should not we have a poetry and philosophy of insight and not of tradition, and a religion by revelation to us, and not the ...
Simplifying one’s life to just a few activities at a time allows one to fully experience and appreciate each event and therefore get the most out of it. Emerson wrote for pleasure, in turn creating his own occupation by continuing his interests.
He believed that appreciation for life was key, both human life and action as well as nature. In Emerson’s Nature, he describes the life of which he lives, and the importance of using nature as an essential element for existence (The Essential Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson 2).
The man kept a journal- jotting down every thought and bright idea that popped into his head. Eventually, he influenced a good friend, Henry David Thoreau, to also keep a journal for his life. Emerson said his journal kept his fear from spreading from his mind to his body (Self Reliance 6).
Virtues in the life of Emerson held only wisdom: “The virtue in most is conformity. Self-reliance is its aversion. It loves not realities and creators, but names and customs. ” (Self Reliance 14).
Emerson boelieved that if people truly believed in themselves, conformity would be non-existent because people would not want to be the same. He thought that one should fully give himself to nature and the will of God; for the only temptations would be those of the changing laws of nature (The Essential Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson 29).
Emerson undoubtedly understood that the natural outdoors held a certain open- air classroom feeling.
The feeling of an outside setting brings focus and stability to preparation for learning. Emerson repeated in his personal narratives, “No man can learn what he has not preparation for learning, however near to his eyes is the object. ” (The Essential Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson 96).
When Emerson officially developed into a transcendentalist in 1832, he consistently portrayed the optimist. He did not believe there was evil in the world, which sometimes put other writers, such as Herman Melville, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry James, Sr. , into a doubting judgment of Emerson and his thoughts on transcendentalism (Self Reliance).
Even though some other well- known American authors did not always agree or support Emerson’s ideas, he wound up existing in American History and culture on the norm. Emerson became known as the central figure of his literary and philosophical group, now known as the American Transcendentalists. These writers shared a key belief that each individual could transcend, or move beyond, the physical world of the senses into deeper spiritual experience through free will and intuition (“Ralph Waldo Emerson Biography”).
The Essay on Emerson And Transcendentalism Man Nature Society
... men (The American Scholar). As the essence of transcendentalism, Ralph Waldo Emerson writes about the necessary steps one must take to ... must separate himself from outside influences and devote his life to Nature. Emerson s revolutionary point-of-view continues to influence ... as a result of his interactions with the natural world. Transcendentalists clearly feel that the greatest way to associate ...
In this school of thought, God was not remote and unknowable; believers understood God and themselves by looking into their own souls and by feeling their own connection to nature.
The 1840s were productive years for Emerson. He founded and co-edited the literary magazine The Dial, and he published two volumes of essays in 1841 and 1844. The Dial was established in 1840 as a Transcendentalist magazine, edited by Margaret Fuller and Ralph Waldo Emerson (“Ralph Waldo Emerson”).
In Ralph Waldo Emerson Biography, the author wrote that it was published four volumes in this incarnation, ceasing in 1844. Margaret Fuller was a woman introduced into transcendentalism in order to pull feminine resources into the views of natural law and education.
She co-edited with Emerson and published poetry, reviews and critiques each quarter. Emerson’s introduction of women to the world that was primarily men also helped build the strong women association in businesses today, along with their involvement in media and publication- like materials in present-day society. The testimonials of the influence of Emerson with contemporary descriptions of the man and his beneficent life are endless. His whole life, however closely examined, shows no flaw of temper or of foible.
It was serene and lovely to the end, simply because he existed with no worry or regret in his heart about his lifestyle of paving the natural view of the world for future people to live his transcendental ways. Emerson’s journey through transcendentalism was about going beyond one’s humanity in an effort to understand the world around him on a higher level. American thought has been greatly influenced by Emerson’s declaration of philosophy, which has also been a major source of inspiration for future thinkers. He was an authority on showing the way that life has to follow, a way which challenges existing standards and manages to overcome personal, national and religious barriers.
The Essay on A Biography Of Ralph Waldo Emerson
One of Americas most influential thinkers and authors was Ralph Waldo Emerson. Ralph Waldo Emerson was born in Boston on May 25, 1803. Emerson's dad died when he was only eight, which forced his mom to take in boarders to support the family's needs. When Emerson was only 14, he entered Harvard, where he ran became a sort of secretary for the president of the university. When he graduated Harvard, ...
I have neither given nor received any unauthorized aid on this essay. Works Cited Emerson, Ralph Waldo, and Brooks Atkinson. The Essential Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson. New York: Modern Library, 2000. Print. Emerson, Ralph Waldo, and Gene Dekovic. Self Reliance. New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1975. Print. “Ralph Waldo Emerson Biography. ” Bio. com. A&E Networks Television, n. d. Web. 17 Mar. 2014. <http://www. biography. com/people/ralph-waldo-emerson- 9287153>. “Ralph Waldo Emerson. ” POETS. org. Academy of American Poets, n. d. Web. 19 Mar. 2014. <http://www. poets. org/poet. php/prmPID/201>.
