Transcendentalism: The Path to Individualism

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In an era of national renaissance and reformation, the United States was evolving into a country that respected the value and potential of the individual. Activism spread like wildfire as citizens fought for rights to freedom and equality for everyone. But while Americans viewed reform as a team-effort, a new philosophy was emerging that introduced a different perspective. Transcendentalism was founded in 1836 by a group of like-minded thinkers who saw the individual’s capacity to improve and transcend beyond the customs of society; among this collection of intellectuals were authors such as Henry David Thoreau and Walt Whitman; but at the center of it all was “the prophet of self-reliance and individualism,” Ralph Waldo Emerson (“Emerson and the Transcendentalists” 60; Park 491). Emerson believed that, in order for their generation to successfully reform, Americans needed to stop idolizing past generations as …show more content…

As a Transcendentalist, Emerson strongly believed the mind is active and can evolve; therefore, anything that hinders the mind from reaching its potential is a hazard to avoid. In order for the mind to transcend, it cannot be tied down by conformity or consistency. Emerson uses a metaphor of dragging around the heavy “corpse” of memory to show that humans would rather be weighted down by former traditions and beliefs than to publicly contradict themselves (274). Emerson explains that all great men of history contradicted themselves and were misunderstood by society; they were “countercultural and socially destructive” because their minds were inconsistent and unpredictable (Emerson 274; Park 490). Emerson illustrates how consistency and fear of contradiction are a heavy burden to the Transcendentalist ideal of constant introspection and evolution of thought; therefore, in order for the mind to develop and transcend, one must fearlessly abandon past philosophies and

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