Transcendentalism

1. In “Nature” by Ralph Waldo Emerson the poem focused on nature it self such as the way that adults see nature. An example “Most persons do not see the sun.” I felt that this was kind of true because many adults and even kids don’t see things of nature as we should. Next I read “Self-Reliance” also by Ralph Waldo Emerson. I enjoyed this poem it explained how a human should be and the way some are. “A man is relieved and gay when he has put his heart into his work and done his best; but what he has said or done otherwise, shall give him no peace.” This was a quote from what I read; every man on earth should feel this exact way. Then there was “Resistance to Civil Government” by Henry David Thoreau. I didn’t like this short story at all. It talked about the government and the way it should be acted upon. “The government itself, which is only the mode which the people have chosen to execute their will, is equally liable to abused and perverted before the people can act through it.” I don’t feel that the government is equally to anything.
2. “Nature” showed Transcendentalism by showing that nature is in the eye of the people not by what others believe. For instance “One might think the atmosphere was made transparent with this design, to give man, in the heavenly bodies, the perpetual presence of the sublime.” This could have been told to them through their mind by God, because they believed that God spoke to them through their minds and nature. When they speak of nature they speak of stars, the sun, and the woods and such things. These are all things that come naturally from nature or otherwise from God to communicate with them.
“Self- Reliance” also showed Transcendentalism through the mind and body of a human. It talks about how we should accept all things that come our way because it’s a gift from God. “These are the voices we hear in solitude, but they grow faint and inaudible as we enter into the world.” In the other religions they would’ve have believed that this was a part of God’s doing and it was wrong. But God encourages us all through his words to do well. The story also talks about us accepting the place that we’ve been put at. These are good examples of Transcendentalism.
“Resistance to Civil Government” was another manner of Transcendentalism. They did not believe that the government was effective, because you could connect with God through nature and through your mind. “It is not a man’s duty, as a matter of course, to devote himself to the eradication of any, even the most enormous wrong; he may still properly have other concerns to engage him; he may still properly have other concerns to engage him; but it is his duty, at least, to wash his hands of it, and, if he gives it no thought longer, not to give it practically his support.” This was an quote saying that it’s a man duty to do what he’s told through God but not by the government, because they don’t need it. The short story focused on how a man can do without the help of a government because we can resist it.
3. In the video this man has left to go into nature for awhile, maybe even consider living outdoors. He’s surrounded by all of the animals of nature. He’s building a cabin and much more so that he can survive. In the film he says”You can’t rush it,’ referring to his new lifestyle of living. He’s actually enjoying living this way and is surviving with nature day by day. He’s eating lake trout and hunting other things. This is a good way of living outdoors.
This is a good way of showing Transcendentalism because the transcendentalist believed in nature and felt that it was a sign to us through many ways. Back in “Nature” it read”the greatest delight the fields and woods minister, is the suggestion of an occult relation between man and the vegetable.” In the film the man is using this quote very wisely; he’s enjoying the fields and woods through every circumstance.