'American Transcendentalists Essay\r'

'Ameri potty transcendentalists sought the per homosexualkindent spectral reality rat physical appearances. They were sanguine and believed in homophile perfectibility; they assiduous in projects that tried to create the intellectl reality. They believed that the earth is one great entity. Transcendentalism centres on the divinity fudge of each individual. But this divinity could be self-discovered that if the psyche had the freedom of mind. They believed in democracy, equality, the unlimited superpower of the individual and the beauty of the human spirit and the inwrought world. They focused on the positive aspects of life, while works to improve the in preciselyices of the world.\r\nTranscendentalists’ view on temper is crotchety and interesting. They believe that there is an inner spark contained by and connecting all facets of character, including mankind, which can be discovered non through logical reasoning but provided through intuition and the ori ginal insight. They stressed the impressiveness of harmony with personality. Transcendentalism is an idealism that encompasses a versatile and sometimes confu darknessg set of beliefs catching man’s role in nature and the universe.\r\nAs for the human nature, transcendentalists saw no need for any intervention betwixt divinity fudge and man and therefore called for an in appearence from organized religion. They stated that God is energy, a force, non a let divulgeicular separate being; God breathes through nature and man attempts to open himself up to this influx. Their claim was that the divinity is self-contained in each being. They believed in the unlimited potential of human efficacy to connect with both the natural and spiritual world. hoi polloi should, through their intuition, the outer symbols of nature and translate them into spiritual facts. Transcendentalists were idealistic and optimistic because they believed they could find answers to whatever the y were seeking.\r\nTranscendentalist tell there was meaning in e verything and that meaning was peachy and connected by and parts of a ecclesiastic plan. This philosophy led to an optimistic emphasis on individualism; one aspect of individualism is the lever of the individual over society. One must hunt his instincts and non conform to what society dictates. Although society countenance for influence an individual towards conformity, it is important to re master(prenominal) authentic to one’s self and to one’s identity. Transcendentalism believes the spiritual reflection of each person as they move from the rational to the spiritual is the very essence of life, and this is an individual accomplishment.\r\nThoreau stated that the world about us as a miracle in itself. It is in this living we move toward the con lore of the reality we cannot see, and this is part of Thoreau’s point. Thoreau argued in Walden that the divine exists not just in all people but can be perceived in all of nature.\r\nThe idea of immanence served to strengthen Thoreau’s belief in the equality of all people â€Å"Heaven is on a lower floor our feet as well as over our heads,” cited Thoreau in Walden. â€Å"Superfluous wealth can buy superfluities but,” is some other valuable quotation from his book. Transcendentalists believed in individual creative spirit and empathized natural way of life. Thus, transcendentalists were extolling the spiritual benefits of living in nature. Thoreau believed that â€Å"most men live lives of hush desperation,” and he wanted to show the humanity a way out.\r\nAnti-transcendentalists rejected the optimistic outlook on humanity and life declaring that the optimism of their predecessors was naïve and unrealistic. The anti-transcendentalists reflected a to a greater extent discouraged attitude and focused on man’s uncertainty and limited potential in the universe. The writing of anti-t ranscendentalists focuses on imagination, intuition, the power of nature and individual emotion, but they deal with the darker side of human nature.\r\nThe anti-transcendentalists viewed nature as vast and incomprehensible, a reflection of the contend between sizable and evil.\r\nThe anti-transcendentalist felt humans were debase and had to struggle for goodness. Although they thought goodness was attainable for some, they believed in evil as its own entity. They believed sin was an officious force; it was not just the absence of good; they really did think, on some level, that the devil existed.\r\nThe anti-transcendentalists believed in a higher authority and that nature is eventually the creation and possession of God and can not be understood by humans. The anti-transcendentalists feared that people who craved complete individualism would give into the worse angles of man’s nature. They were concerned that without external constraints, such as societal mores, people would be motivated only by their immediate need and desire for stunning gratification. They believed that both nature and human nature had a dark side that could not be ignored.\r\nAnti-transcendentalist source would hold readers’ attention through dread of a series of terrible possibilities and feature landscapes of dark forests, positive vegetation, concealed ruins with horrific rooms, depressed characters.\r\nMelville’s positioning on life is that God created the universe with an unmeasured number of meanings and man is always trying to catch one specific meaning. The writer believed the single-minded idealist could draw society into danger. Melville illustrated this fault through his main character, Ahab, who embarked on a journey to avenge the giant star that dismasted him. Ahab had excessive pride, which blinded his common sense and menace his crew as he set out on a futile mission of revenge.\r\nWhen Ahab said, â€Å"I would strike out at the sun if it insulted me. Who’s over me?” ” it showed his transformation into a single-minded idealist. In this story the whale, Moby Dick, serves to symbolize any force that we allow to hold us back. Melville, through symbolism in the story, taught the moral that when human beings have few external constraints, their inner needs and drives serve as their motivation. He also warned of the inherent dangers in a person such as Captain Ahab.\r\nOn the contrary, outcast’s character allows the reader to relate to a love for nature and the earth, as well as a feeling of inner peace and serenity.\r\nThe â€Å"man vs Nature” is one of the central in the book. This competitiveness contradicts totally the notion about the integrity of serviceman and natural world. Still, Melville gives credit to natural world, while referring to it as to the, â€Å"God’s great, unflattering laureate, Nature.” But in his writing the integrity and spiritual fullness of Natur e is questioned, his approach is more scientific than philosophical.\r\nHawthorne was another case of anti-transcendentalist trend in American literature. In Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment an invitation to taste from the fountain of youth is offered. quad Heidegger’s friends agree to do so and they go young again, but they are soon devastated by the transience of the experience. Again, the motif of the uncontrolled power of the science is central in the story.\r\nAnother contradiction between transcendentalists and their opponents concentrated around the concept of self-reliability. For instance, Hawthorne saw the sovereign person as selfish, insecure, and desperate for attention. The need for a person to depend on society is as great as the need for society to depend on the individual. But the term â€Å"society” in the story has more specific application. â€Å"Society” is the well-known(prenominal) circle, the system of social relations of each indivi dual. By becoming suddenly young, people endanger themselves of loosing their known circle of friends and acquaintances. Hawthorne depicted people who had no regard for societal values at all; he was among the first to introduce the problem of ethic of science.\r\nAs for the human nature, Dr. Heidegger advices his friends that they should, â€Å"think what a sin and discredit it would be, if, with your peculiar advantages, you should not become patterns of virtue and comprehension to all the young people of the age.” The issue of sin has attracted many anti-transcendentalist writers.\r\nSo we mak3e a conclusion that transcendentalist authors had optimistic view of life and believed in the spiritual nature if the world and integrity of Man and Nature, they put on emphasis over individualism and self-reliance. Anti-transcendentalists had more pessimistic view on life and concentrated on the darkest side of human nature.\r\nSources:\r\nHerman Melville, Moby Dick or the Whale, new-made Library, Reprint edition, 1992, ISBN: 0679600108\r\nNathaniel Hawthorne, Tales and Sketches, Library of America, 1982, ISBN: 0940450038\r\nHenry David Thoreau, Walden: An Annotated Edition, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1995, ISBN: 0395720427\r\n \r\n'