The Concept of Transcendentalism - Coursework Example

The Transcendental Example of Thoreau The concept of transcendentalism is often difficult to describe. Often seen as a reaction to organized religion, the movement is traced to the time and place of such notable writers as Henry David Thoreau and his friend Ralph Waldo Emerson. One of the common characteristics of the movement is a general attempt to create a better world by refocusing on what it truly means to live, usually by questioning the established forms of human existence such as the emerging materialism and capitalism of the 19th century. Transcendentalists attempt to redefine the world and the human experience in terms of spirituality and an interconnectedness with the material natural world. While the idea of transcendentalism has always remained very fluid as a natural by-product of its primary tenets, individual study of those who lived the life, the most famous of whom is Henry Thoreau, can provide great insight as to what is meant by the word ‘transcendentalism’. Reading through Walden is much like driving through a torrential rain – there are ideas everywhere that must be sought in the spaces between the raindrops. However, examining the life of Henry David Thoreau as it is expressed in Walden reveals many basic transcendentalist tenets as one learns about Thoreau’s concepts of space and possession, his ideas of what is meant by the term slavery and the concept of what it means to be truly successful in life. One of the first modern conceptions regarding the world that Thoreau questions in his book is the concept of materialism or ownership as it exists in economic terms. Thoreau takes up the question of possession as he illustrates how he began shopping for farms around the Concord area. He recognizes the conventional view of possession as being some form of ownership, “The nearest that I came to actual possession was when I bought the Hollowell place, … but before the owner gave me a deed of it, his wife … changed her mind and wished to keep it” (68). As he discusses the process of handing the farm back over to its owner, he illustrates the transcendental approach to the concept of possession. “But I retained the landscape, and I have since annually carried off what it yielded without a wheelbarrow … I have frequently seen a poet withdraw, having enjoyed the most valuable part of a farm, while the crusty farmer supposed that he had got a few wild apples only” (68). In detailing the costs associated with building his home, including such notes as the use of refuse shingles for the roof and sides and the purchase of two second hand windows, he rails against the inflated prices and costs of living found within the town or city as a part of the capitalistic process. “I thus found that the student who wishes for a shelter can obtain one for a lifetime at an expense not greater than the rent which he now pays annually” (40). Having rejected the concept of ownership in the form of deeds and fences as well as condemned the process of ownership in which prices become inflated well higher than they had to be, Thoreau then moves to describe the false impressions of living space to which most people in the commercial world seem to cling. Recognizing the smallness of his home, Thoreau first indicates the unnecessary extravagance of the homes of others: “Many of our houses, both public and private, with their almost innumerable apartments, their huge halls and their cellars for the storage of wines and other munitions of peace, appear to be extravagantly large for their inhabitants.  They are so vast and magnificent that the latter seem to be only vermin which infest them” (116). However, he also begins to indicate how the appropriate living space isn’t just the empty rooms and built spaces of human creation, but should include the shared spaces of the outdoors, the connection with nature and the consideration of the ultimate creation. While it was one of the more common causes of the transcendentalists, Thoreau’s position against slavery illustrates a much wider view of the social institution than was commonly conceived. As he discusses the slavery of mankind to the labors of the fields, “How many a poor immortal soul have I met well-nigh crushed and smothered under its load, creeping down the road of life, pushing before it a barn seventy-five feet by forty, its Augean stables never cleansed, and one hundred acres of land, tillage, mowing, pasture, and woodlot!” (5). Consumed by the need to keep the property going or to earn the money necessary to pay off old debts, the individual becomes a slave to those to whom they are indebted and begin to lose their integrity, their souls becoming little more than compost to till in their land. However, Thoreau takes the concept of slavery even another step further, indicating that “worst of all when you are the slave-driver of yourself … See how he cowers and sneaks, how vaguely all the day he fears, not being immortal nor divine, but the slave and prisoner of his own opinion of himself, a fame won by his own deeds. Public opinion is a weak tyrant compared with our own private opinion” (7). This being the case, Thoreau suggests one of the first steps necessary for men to live truly free lives is for them to realize that there isn’t simply one prescribed ‘right’ way to live a life. “It appears as if men had deliberately chosen the common mode of living because they preferred it to any other. Yet they honestly think there is no choice left. But alert and healthy natures remember that the sun rose clear. It is never too late to give up our prejudices” (7). Obtaining one’s freedom not only from social constructions of the ‘right’ way to live but also from our own constraints of self-opinion to know our inner road to freedom is thus one of the most important steps toward a successful life. With a redefined concept of possession and a redefined conception of the tenets of slavery, Thoreau brings forward his perspective on the concept of true success in life not in terms of material wealth, but instead in terms of a life fully lived. He acknowledges the traditional concepts of success as being material wealth, large homes and religious adherence but continues to point out the unfilling nature of such pursuits to the inner man. “I know of many systems of religion esteemed heathenish whose precepts fill the reader with shame, and provoke him to new endeavors, though it be to the performance of rites merely” (184). Rather than following an externally ordered course of prescribed actions toward success, such as the modern world’s insistence that children go to school, attend university, get married, follow a career, have children and make lots of money all while faithfully attending Sunday morning church services and the obligatory rounds of soccer and piano lessons, Thoreau indicates the only true way to successfully live a life is by following one’s dreams. “I learned this, at least, by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours … In proportion as he simplifies his life, the laws of the universe will appear less complex, and solitude will not be solitude, nor poverty poverty, nor weakness weakness. If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them” (267). Thus, Thoreau’s definition of the truly successful life is one in which the individual has dared to follow their own inner voice as it responded to the natural world around them. “Though the result were bodily weakness, yet perhaps no one can say that the consequences were to be regretted, for these were a life in conformity to higher principles. If the day and the night are such that you greet them with joy, and life emits a fragrance like flowers and sweet-scented herbs, is more elastic, more starry, more immortal – that is your success” (180). By examining the various elements of Thoreau’s life, his rejection of the material world in favor of listening to the natural world around Walden’s Pond and removal of himself from the shackles of property ownership, one can begin to understand the basic tenets of the Transcendentalists. His voluntary desire to live in a small self-built rough home in the wilderness, well away from all other people illustrates his dedication to the first of these ideas, that possessions and concentration upon material wealth was merely a distraction from the true process of living. The importance of this step is illustrated in Thoreau’s depiction of the slavery of the common man who must constantly labor at other men’s business as a means of supporting himself or removing debt rather than going out and working to their own benefit. This is not only seen in his life activities through his choice of housing accommodations during this period of time, but also in his ability and practice of remaining self-sufficient while living in the woods through fishing, hunting and farming. Finally, Thoreau is able to demonstrate for his readers his vision of a successful life, having actually following through on the suggestions he received from his inner self, to remove himself from society in order to connect himself more solidly with nature, the source of all goodness and truth with the final goal being to perhaps inspire others to follow in his footsteps in terms of following their own inner guidance rather than the external prodding of the material culture. Works Cited Thoreau, Henry David. Walden. New York: Barnes and Noble Books, 1993. Read More