Essay on Transcendentalism vs. Anti-Transcendentalism

In the mid-1830s, Ralph Waldo Emerson created a belief called Transcendentalism. He wrote the essay, â€Å"Self Reliance† and Henry David Thoreau, another Transcendentalist wrote an essay called, â€Å"Walden.† Both works of literature focus on the Transcendentalism belief. In â€Å"The Minister’s Black Veil† by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hawthorne reveals both Transcendentalism and Anti-Transcendentalism through the attitudes of the characters. Therefore, â€Å"The Minister’s Black Veil† can be compared and contrasted with both â€Å"Self Reliance† and â€Å"Walden.† During the 1830s and 1840s, Transcendentalism was influenced mostly by Ralph Waldo Emerson. When the idea was first created, Emerson and a small group of people got together to discuss philosophy, religion,†¦show more content†¦Emerson also says, â€Å"There is a time in every man’s education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance: that imitation is suicide†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (242). Here, Emerson does not believe in conformity. He also states, â€Å"To be great is to be misunderstood†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (242). This quote means that people with new ideas are often not understood by the general public. Emerson’s quote compares to Parson Hooper because Hooper was a good clergyman; however, he was misunderstood because he wore the black veil. In Thoreau’s essay, â€Å"Walden,† he explains the belief of connecting spirituality with nature. He says that one should think freely, learning to understanding more and being able to make further conclusions about life. â€Å"If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer† (258). Parson Hooper heard â€Å"a different drummer† and followed his own way of life. The minister did not want to be like his congregation, he wanted to be his own person. Therefore, Parson Hooper was in fact a Transcendentalist. Parson Hooper’s congregation was all alike. They thought that their minister was strange for wearing a black veil over his face. All of the people in the society were all similar to each other, there were no differences. However, they felt uncomfortable when they saw Parson Hooper just because of his black veil. They believed in conformity andShow MoreRelatedNotes On : Reviving Religion976 Words   |  4 Pages as the mentally challenged were treated very poorly c) The American Peace Society was a group that strongly advocated for peace and not war 7) Demon Rum-The Old Deluder a) American Temperance Society was formed to advocate for being anti alcoholic b) Neal S. Dow was known as the Father of Prohibition, and he was able to get Maine to pass a law that made it illegal to make intoxicating liquor 8) Women in Revolt a) Women didn t really have that much rights and they wereRead MoreAmerican Literature11652 Words   |  47 Pagesfeelings emphasis on the imagination over reason and intuition over facts urbanization versus nostalgia for nature burden of the Puritan past Genre/Style: ï‚ · ï‚ · ï‚ · ï‚ · ï‚ · ï‚ · literary tale character sketch slave narratives, political novels poetry transcendentalism Effect: ï‚ · ï‚ · ï‚ · helps instill proper gender behavior for men and women fuels the abolitionist movement allow people to re-imagine the American past Historical Context: ï‚ · ï‚ · expansion of magazines, newspapers, and book publishing slaveryRead MoreMetz Film Language a Semiotics of the Cinema PDF100902 Words   |  316 Pagestemporary aesthetics has turned its attention to the great categories, such as the graceful, the sublime, the elegiac, etc., which, in the domain of art, of human relations, and of the emotions, define the affective-aesthetic equivalent of Kantian transcendentalism, itself reinterpreted into phenomenological terms and stripped of any trace of idealism. The universal characteristics of the world as it appears, or of man as he apprehends the world—since one cannot break away from this constant shuttling implied