Tanscendentalism: Common Themes

Transcendentalism: Common Themes
Tanscendentalism: Common Themes

Self-Wisdom
Quite simply, Transcendentalism is based on the belief that human beings have self-
wisdom and may gain this knowledge or wisdom by tuning in to the ebb and flow of
nature. Transcendentalism revolves around the self, specifically the betterment of the
self. Where Emerson and his followers differed from earlier philosophical and religious
beliefs was in the idea that human beings had innate knowledge and could connect with
God directly rather than through an institution such as organized religion.
Transcendentalism celebrated the self, an important step in the construction of
American identity, better understood as the notion of American individualism—one of
the cornerstones of American democracy.
Different writers conceived of the search for self-knowledge in different ways. Whitman’s
response was a grand celebration of the self in all its complexity and beauty and
contradictions. He begins the poem “Song of Myself” with the bold line, “I celebrate
myself.” He offers up to his readers, “I loafe and invite my Soul, / I lean and loafe at my
ease . . . observing a spear of summer grass.” Leaves of Grass is filled with such
celebration.
Thoreau took a slightly different path toward self-knowledge. Walden is a study of

solitude. He says, “I find it wholesome to be alone the greater part of the time. . . . I
never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude.” For him, self-
discovery comes as the result of intense reflection. Self-knowledge has political
implications as well. Once the individual has established a moral code, it becomes his
or her duty to peacefully protest and engage in civil disobedience against the
government should governmental policies violate that code. Thoreau’s opposition to
slavery led to his refusal to pay a poll tax supporting the Mexican War, an act that
landed him in jail for a night. For Thoreau, self-discovery was not simply an intangible
concept, it was a way of living.
Nature and Its Meaning

Nature is the focal point for much transcendentalist thought and writing. As a theme, it is
so central to the movement that Emerson’s cornerstone essay is entitled Nature and
serves as an investigation into nature and its relationship to the soul. For
transcendentalists, nature and the soul were inextricably linked. In the rhythms and
seasons of the natural world, transcendentalists found comfort and divinity. In the
increasingly industrialized and fragmented world in which they lived, the search for
meaning in nature was of great importance. Emerson, Thoreau, Whitman, Hawthorne,
Fuller, Melville, and others saw possibility, liberation, and beauty in nature.
Emerson writes in Nature, “Let us interrogate the great apparition, that shines so
peacefully around us. Let us inquire, to what end is nature?” For Emerson, nature is a
direct line to God, and its “meaning” is directly linked to God’s “meaning.” His definition
of God and meaning is clearly different than that of the conservative Unitarian Church
from which he split.
A follower of Emerson, Thoreau took ideas from Emerson’s work and put them into
practice. He saw nature as not just an awe-inspiring force but a way of life. Thoreau
offers up the following advice in Walden: “Let us spend one day as deliberately as
Nature, and not be thrown off the track by every nutshell and mosquito’s wing that falls
on the rails.” For Thoreau, nature is pure because it is free from commercialization and
industrialization. It is both a respite and a teacher. The transcendentalists were not
reactionary or opposed to the modernization of the world; they were, however,
concerned that such modernization could lead to alienation. Nature provided a way to
keep humans in touch with their souls and with their spiritual foundations.
Social Reform
Regarding social issues, transcendentalists were considered visionaries in their
attitudes toward such issues as social protest, elimination of slavery, women’s rights,
creative and participatory education for children, and labor reform. Transcendentalism
became a venue for social reform because it revolved around the idea of liberation.
Transcendentalist writers may have had as their immediate goal the liberation of the
soul, but that goal expanded to social liberation as more and more thinkers joined the
transcendentalist school of thought.
Founded as an alternative to conservative, organized religion, Transcendentalism had

countercultural tendencies from its inception. From the free flowing, free verse of
Whitman to the civil disobedience of Thoreau to Fuller’s radical notion that men and
women were social and intellectual equals, the movement was engaged in many
controversial social arenas.
As the editor of the transcendentalist publication The Dial, Fuller often published
controversial pieces. As the author of Woman in the Nineteenth Century, she invited
debate and controversy. Her essay is a call to action for women and men to change
society. She laments:
The lot of Woman is sad. She is constituted to expect and need happiness that cannot
exist on earth. She must stifle such aspirations within her secret heart, and fit herself, as
well as she can, for a life of resignations and consolations.
Clearly this is not an acceptable life to Fuller, just as slavery is unacceptable to

Thoreau. In “Resistance to Civil Government,” Thoreau states, “Unjust laws exist: shall
we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them until
we have succeeded, or shall we transgress them at once?” Thoreau’s answer was to
transgress, and go to jail if necessary, for as he says, “Under a government which
imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison.”
Along with slavery and gender issues, class issues also came to the forefront in the
nineteenth century, revealing a new kind of slavery—wage slavery. Transcendentalists
experimented with socialist communes, such as George Ripley’s Brook Farm and
Alcott’s Fruitlands. These experiments were short lived. The legacy of civil disobedience
served America and the world well, as it went on to inspire Gandhi and Martin Luther
King, Jr., to lead peaceful social protests. In addition, Fuller is often read as a precursor
to modern feminism and is seen as a woman ahead of her time.
(c)enotes.com

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Transcendentalism: Common Themes

Tanscendentalism: Common Themes

Thoreau took a slightly different path toward self-knowledge. Walden is a study of

Nature and Its Meaning

Founded as an alternative to conservative, organized religion, Transcendentalism had

Clearly this is not an acceptable life to Fuller, just as slavery is unacceptable to

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