Krystina Hasting
ENH 241
Ms. Rodrigo
Due: 1 July 2008

Reflecting on Transcendentalism

Transcendentalism is a period of time that I had always felt bored by. I love literature, but my understanding of transcendentalism was that it was nothing more than a bunch of colonial hippies who wanted to live outdoors and avoid any industrialism or capital expansion that our country may face. Thoreau’s Walden was particularly bothersome; it seemed an angry criticism against anyone who chose not to live in solitude as Thoreau did. I found this ironic, since he frequently visited town, and had visitors in; also discomforting was the fact that it is common knowledge he only lived there for two years, two months, and two days. I felt that if he could criticize everyone else for a way of life that he felt inappropriate, he could at least manage to spend his life in that fashion.
However, despite my bias, I learned a lot by reviewing the resources that were posted on our wiki. For example, the authors who are known as transcendentalists are not in fact senseless hippies, but were all highly intelligent individuals who strove for positive changes in our new country. Emerson, the so called leader of the movement, and many others, simply wanted to see America become its on country. They strove for individuality, imagination and a better future. They were idealists, which is a label I sometimes place upon myself. I also learned that often, the transcendentalists believed in the power of the human mind. This also appealed to me as I am studying psychology.
Learning the truth about transcendentalism allowed me to better understand the other four periods of early American literature because it helps to fill in the gap. I now have that missing puzzle piece, so I am able to put it in its place and view our country’s literature as a whole. For example, transcendentalism shows traces of all of the previous periods. There is still a slightly religious element which stemmed from Puritanism. There intellectual and philosophical explorations from the Age of Enlightenment. There is also a lot more creativity allowed, as was first explored in Romanticism. All of these elements combined to create transcendentalism, and this movement allowed for new literature to be published, especially that critiquing slavery. Without transcendentalism, I believe that the literature on slavery would have been too shocking for many, and it wouldn’t have been nearly as highly regarded.
Because of this new understanding, I am also able to reconsider my thoughts on many of the themes covered in this course. Self confidence likely became a popular theme during this period of time, because of the newfound independence that the authors explored. Also experimentalism was obviously something that these authors pushed. Regardless, these authors were much more important than I had previously realized.
If I had taken the opportunity to study this period I would not have had a difficult time choosing authors to study. I have always enjoyed poetry, so I would be likely to have chosen Walt Whitman. I have read a few of his works, and I loved the imagery he provided. I would have chosen to read his poem “O Captain My Captain” because it plays a role in one of my favorite movies, The Dead Poets Society. Also, I think I would have chosen Thoreau, because I would have liked to have known more about him in order to surpass the bias I had previously held. I would likely have chosen to study Civil Disobedience because I was not fond of Walden, but a different work may have proved more interesting.
No matter what authors I would have chosen, and which of their works, I am certain that I would have been proven wrong about the period and the people, and that is an invaluable lesson. I pan to study transcendentalism more now, because the writers of the time deserve their efforts to be known, and I deserve to replace my ignorance with the thoughts of great men and women.