Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and His Transcendental Idea

It is free will which keeps men away from being enslaved, physically and spiritually. Once a man has free will, he can make decisions on himself, thus he is not belonged to anybody else but himself. This free will is valued by Transcendentalists; it makes a man free of outsider’s control, and the man can create instead of imitating. Transcendentalists also expected the people make their own decisions based on conscience instead of what the authority is saying. In order to achieve that, one needs free will. A great transcendentalist, Emerson, expressed this idea in his essay Self-Reliance. In his essay, Emerson asked people to seek the truth from themselves instead of somebody else. Emerson supported that idea with the examples of great masters such as Newton, Washington, and Bacon. These great masters did not find truth from somebody else but themselves. Nobody taught them, therefore they taught themselves. By creating instead of imitating, those great masters left great legacy for the society. Transcendentalists also believe in action. According to Transcendentalism, everything in this universe is connected to each other. One’s action is going to affect others, and the effects of that action are eventually coming back to him. If an injustice is going on, one cannot excuse himself from not acting to justify the injustice. Not acting to correct injustice is an act to participate injustice; the injustice is eventually going to happen to whoever is indifferent to that injustice at the first time. Another great transcendentalist, Thoreau, used himself as an example of this idea. Thoreau was opposed to the Mexican war and slavery, because he thought those are injustices done by the government. While he strived to correct those injustic...

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...r facts from government, Church, or any other authorities by himself, for he realizes truth comes from within himself. Dr. King is well influenced by Thoreau and Emerson, and he lived a true transcendental life. Dr. King impacted a whole generation of Americans, inspiring them with the celebration of uniqueness, caring about others, and independent thinking. With the inspiration coming from Thoreau and Emerson, Dr. King told the people why they should act on the injustice, how they should act on the injustice, and what they need to know to back up their positions.

Works Cited

Emerson, Ralph Waldo. “Self-Reliance.” The Norton Anthology of American Literature 2003: 842, 839.

Thoreau, Henry David. “Civil Disobedience.” The Norton Anthology of American Literature 2003: 544, 553.

King, Martin Luther Jr. “Letter from the Birmingham jail.” Why We Can't Wait 1963: 77-100.