Emerson's Purpose Of The Transparent Eyeball Summary

Eric Fowler
Professor Krafcik
English Honors II
29 November 2016
Emerson’s Purpose of the Transparent Eyeball
Ralph Waldo Emerson was the most prominent transcendentalist in America during the 19th century. All other Romantics aspired to gain his approval. According to Emerson, “few adults can see nature” (“from Nature” 241), which means adults need to leave the business world behind to see what is happening in real life. Emerson believes that people can only make the right decision if the only influences are from the natural world. These decisions need to be made with input from the real world, but they should not be expected to change it. Emerson effectively employs the “transparent eyeball” to depict that mankind is not significant to nature,

Especially during Emerson’s time, the, “occult relation between man and the vegetable” (“from Nature” 242), was not realized by society. He wanted everyone to discover something that was more powerful than humanity, but was forever linked to mankind. Emerson believes that a relationship, “is then a trifle and a disturbance” (“from Nature” 242), from the beauty of nature and the freedom of the natural world. Being a transparent eyeball is the ideal goal for someone to achieve because “Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind” (“from Self-Reliance” 247), and reaching this status is critical to sow the seeds of a connection with nature. The muddy “hobgoblin of little minds” (“from Self-Reliance” 247) that is common in society and politics interferes with discerning nature as it is. Being a transparent eyeball involves removing the influences of others so that real needs can be realized. Nature is supposed to be home for man, but society views it as an unforgiving wilderness. Emerson knows that life cannot flourish in the scathing atmosphere of society, so he wants civilization to understand the innate world as it is. Looking at the world through a transparent eyeball causes the cave of peer pressure to crumble, so that the decision to take the road not traveled is

As the result of becoming a transparent eyeball, the Catch-22 of society is abundantly obvious that the joy of progress only leads to the sadness of failure. Those who experience nature know that nothing gold can stay, but rather it is the memories of nature’s true beauty that last a lifetime. Emerson desires for the world to become a transparent eyeball and see nature as it is, because a person who does not know the meaning of life, “shall [receive] no peace” (“from Self-Reliance” 246). Emerson’s issue is that “none of them owns the landscape” (“From Nature” 241), and only by realizing the roles of humanity and nature can one be “somewhat as beautiful as nature” (“From Nature”