Compare and Contrast the Way in which Emerson and Thoreau Represents American Identity

1303 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: History of america in american literature

In the year of 1600’s, the United States of America was being colonized by European countries especially by England. However, on 4th of July 1776 America became independent after having drafted the “Declaration of Independence” initiated by Thomas Jefferson [History of the United States, Wikipedia]. The difference between these two time periods shows that Britain had colonized America for about 176 years which ultimately led to prosper European cultures. Although America became an independent nation, European culture was still playing its role. Therefore, American writers namely Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau presented an idea about American Identity.
Emerson in The American Scholar and Thoreau in Walden represents the idea of American identity by connecting this concept with nature and individuality but Emerson presents his idea about American identity in an intelligent manner whereas Thoreau uses mockery to present his idea.

Emerson and Thoreau both have connected the idea of nature and individuality to represent an American identity. Well, the reason for both the writers having mentioned nature and individuality is because they are transcendentalist. Ralph Waldo Emerson had first published nonfiction essay called Nature which brought about a movement called the transcendentalism (1840-1855) [American Literature Timeline, Honors American Literature]. This movement influenced many writers amongst who is Henry David Thoreau. Transcendentalism believed in individuality being affected by politics and religion. They also believed in God being reflected in nature. Emerson and Thoreau both being transcendentalist had different ways of presenting their ideas about transcendentalism with regard to American identity.
Emer...

... middle of paper ...

...divert away from such cultures and to create a unique American identity, two transcendentalists Ralph Waldo Emerson in his literary work The American Scholar and Henry David Thoreau in Walden represents the idea of an American identity with relation to nature and individuality. However, Emerson presents his concept on American identity intelligently whereas Thoreau uses mockery to present his idea on American identity.

Works Cited

American literature timeline. Retrieved from msbowman1290.com/Honors_Amlit-Timeline
.pdf

History of United States. Retrieved from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the-United_States

Emerson, R.W. (1907). The American Scholar. In Essays. Retrieved from http://www. gutenberg.org/files/16643/16643-h/16643-h.htm Thoreau, H.D. (1854). Walden; or life in the woods. Retrieved from http://www.
gutenberg.org/files/205/205-h/205-h.htm

Show More
Related

  • Analyzing Literary Tone: Emerson, Thoreau, Melville and Hawthorne

    334 Words  | 1 Pages

    Thoreau and Emerson were considered as transcendentalists and their tones are most similar to one other. Thoreau and Emerson both used religion in their writing, knew about people, loved nature and were introspective. Nathaniel Hawthorne took a more humorous side than the others. His work, Dr. Heidegger's Experiment, was an ironic story that showed his dissatisfaction with people's actions and society's values. He was also more pessimistic than Emerson and Thoreau had been.

    Read More

  • Emerson And Transcendentalism Comparison

    650 Words  | 2 Pages

    Transcendentalists Thoreau and Emerson conveyed strong, specific viewpoints on the world through their writing. The transcendentalist ideals differ vastly with the lives lived by most of the modern world today. Firstly, the two differ on views of self-reliance. Secondly, they have different outlooks on the government and organized groups. Lastly, transcendentalist and modern American views vary by the way they view nature. These differences between transcendentalism and life today are essential in understanding life then, as well as life now.

    Read More

  • Henry David Thoreau's Integrity

    596 Words  | 2 Pages

    Although his actions were admirable and act as evidence to integrity, the writings of Henry David Thoreau and Emerson reveal a haughty and pretentious individual. Thoreau's courage was noble. He was quick to immerse himself in his beliefs

    Read More

  • The Philosophies of Transcendentalism

    372 Words  | 1 Pages

    In Thoreau’s excerpt of “Walden”, he writes about moving to the forest to live in a cabin. He gets away from the busy world around him and secludes himself to nature. While living out in the forest, Thoreau would take the time to enjoy the beauty of nature and come back to the cabin and write about it. In Emerson’s excerpt of “Nature”, he writes about the relationship of humans and nature.

    Read More

  • Man And Nature In Emerson And Thoreau

    1092 Words  | 3 Pages

    Essay question: Compare and contrast the relationship between man and nature in Emerson and Thoreau.

    Read More

  • A Comparison of Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Beliefs

    604 Words  | 2 Pages

    know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my

    Read More

  • Transcendentalism: Nature's Role in Intellectual Health

    976 Words  | 2 Pages

    While Emerson never truly factored his transcendentalist ideals into his daily life, Thoreau made a point out of living out his days as a man free from society and connected to nature. In 1846, he refused to pay his poll tax to the government because he believed the war was unjust and did not want to support the government. In doing this, he showed that he remains strong in his own beliefs and will not agree with something just to conform to society. He also showcases Emerson’s philosophy on learning by forming beliefs based on his own life and morals, which were based in nature, receiving instruction from Emerson’s ideas on self-reliance, and taking action against something he believes is unjust. In an excerpt from one of Thoreau’s books, he says, “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived” (Thoreau 16). What he is saying through this is that he wants to evaluate himself in the context of nature and understand what life is like in its purest and fundamental form. He hoped to gain a knowledge of the world and explore what nature had to offer and learn from his experience. Also, Thoreau is letting his readers know that connecting with nature is essential in finding yourself and

    Read More

  • Life and Legacy of David Henry Thoreau

    1550 Words  | 4 Pages

    Transcendentalism believed in the importance of intuition, of the divine spirit uniting all souls, and that true revelation and insight could only take place in nature, where things are most pure. Emerson’s talk that night was called the, “The American Scholar”. In it, he exhorted his audience to throw off the traditions or European scholarships and thought and define for themselves a new American way of thinking. (Shmoop Editorial Team) Twenty-year-old Thoreau was completely gripped. He approached Emerson afterward to introduce himself. The two men had a lot in common and became good friends. Emerson became an important mentor to Thoreau. His impact on the young man’s life was immediately apparent. Emerson was a big fan of journal keeping and encouraged Thoreau to do the same. “So I make my first entry to-day,” Thoreau wrote in his first journal entry on 22 October 1837. Thoreau kept up the habit all of his life, and his journals are an important insight into his philosophies. Also, around this time, he changed his name to Henry

    Read More

  • Emerson and Thoreau

    780 Words  | 2 Pages

    While Emerson and Thoreau certainly have difference of opinions, they recognize the need for public discussion and discourse. Emerson declares “a foolish consistency” to be “the hobgoblin of little minds” (Emerson 367). This is shown in their essays “Self-Reliance” and “Civil Disobedience” in which they support individuality and personal expression. Despite their contrasting views of society and government, the two most prominent transcendentalists in literary history share a passionate belief in the necessity that every American must exercise their constitutional rights and make known their views even and especially if it challenges the status quo.

    Read More

  • Thoreaus Elements of American Romanticism

    1272 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...ing Henry David Thoreau into a prominent American Romantic writer. Such elements include his writings about life in Nature having great solitude; he became friends with the surrounding plants and animals. Secondly, he wrote about what was occurring day to day at Walden’s Pond which showed him as being individualistic. Moreover, there was the idea that God can only be found in nature, and pantheism was constant idea in his book. Finally, Thoreau wrote about intuition as a means of obtaining knowledge, and his use of senses as a tool for building intuition. These ideas time and time again show the various aspects of Thoreau being portrayed as an American Romantic which has lead to a great historical achievement as a writer that he well deserves.

    Read More

  • Emerson and Thoreau Represent American Identity

    1500 Words  | 3 Pages

    “Identity means who a person is, or the qualities of a person or group which make them different from others,” (Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, Third Edition). Every individual, group and country has their own identity which makes them different from others and it shows uniqueness of oneself. Reaction against the existing philosophy takes place when there is conflict in interest amongst the philosophers. It was from the late eighteenth century until mid nineteenth century that the philosophical and literary movement (Transcendental Movement) took place in America as a result of extreme rationalism of the enlightenment. “Transcendentalism, an idealist philosophical tendency among writers in and around Boston in the mid-19th century. Growing out of Christian Unitarianism in the 1830s under the influence of German and British Romanticism, transcendentalism affirmed Kant’s principle of intuitive knowledge not derived from the senses, while rejecting organized religion for an extremely individualistic celebration of the divinity in each human being” (Oxford Concise Dictionary of Literary Terms, p. 262). Thus, being the transcendentalists, both Emerson and Thoreau represented American Identity by influencing American to participate in the construction of American identity through their writings and actions. Therefore, this essay will compare and contrast the way in which Emerson and Thoreau represented American Identity; firstly it will argue Emerson’s influence on the American scholars to create American Identity through creation of an intellectual scholars, which was unique and free from European influence and secondly it will discuss th...

    Read More

  • Edgar Allan Poe and the Search for the American Identity

    1314 Words  | 3 Pages

    "From the first day that the United States won its independance, thoughtful Americans have attempted to define the new national identity" that decolonization invited. Becoming an independant political nation forced citizens to suddenly devise a "community and character" (Finkelman, 63) worthy of this newborn America. It was believed that, once free from Birtish fetters, a unique American character would emerge automatically. But this was not so, and it was left up to the artits, politictians, scientists, businessmen and women, and every other citizen to contrive the American identity. Those who were most accomplished at scrutinizing the American identity and what it was, were the many authors and writers of the 19th century.

    Read More

  • Transcendentalism

    1015 Words  | 3 Pages

    way we think, act, dress and speak? Thoreau and Emerson both tried to incorporate this

    Read More

  • American Identity In The Crucible

    1637 Words  | 4 Pages

    The American Identity is a notion that describes the American people’s values and ideas to other people and nations all over the world. Overall, the American identity has projected that America’s people are free, and America can provide this freedom to anyone that wants to live in it. On the contrary, the people of America learn that even with this vast freedom, America still provides many unexpected hardships that limit American freedom. The foreigners’ outlook of the American Identity is based upon America’s symbols and documents, without which, would make America’s Identity much less identifiable. The American Identity expresses unrealistic amounts freedom through symbols and documents, but in reality, Americans experience many unexpected

    Read More

  • Personal Freedom and Independence: The Works of Benjamin Franklin and Henry David Thoreau

    1787 Words  | 4 Pages

    ...y, considering citizenship and working for the benefit of society, while Henry Thoreau emphasizes the illusory nature and imperfection of the state and sees individual freedom in unity with nature and rejection of pseudo-needs enslaving people.

    Read More

More about Compare and Contrast the Way in which Emerson and Thoreau Represents American Identity

Open Document