8.6.7
Identify common
themes in American art as well as transcendentalism and individualism (e.g.,
writings about and by Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Herman Melville,
Louisa May Alcott, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow).
In mid 1800s America, transcendentalism, the belief in a higher reality that is founded
in sense experience, or in a higher kind of knowledge by human reason, was
widely displayed by people through writing, the arts, and other means, Americans
were proud of all the country had accomplished by the mid 1800s, yet believed
much was still required to be done to make the principles the country was built
upon realities. Such principles as women’s rights, an alcoholic ban, better
schools, and the end of slavery were brought to attention, in hopes of
improvement. In the words of Charles A. Dana, a newspaper editor at the time,
“Our ultimate aim is nothing less than Heaven on Earth.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson, an influential writer during the mid 1800s, believed that
everyone contained an “inner light” part of God, and that each person should
guide their lives using their light. Emerson was famous for his teaching that
the physical world came in second place to the spiritual world. A friend of
Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, believed that the growing industries in America
along with the ever expanding cities would lead the country to ruin. Thoreau was
a determined abolitionist and thought of one’s wealth, “measured by the number
of things he or she can do without”. Emerson and Thoreau frequently included
these concepts into their writing. Herman Melville’s Moby Dick displayed
a symbolic struggle between good an evil and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The
Scarlet Letter similarly displays good and evil, but explores it in a
Puritan New England town. Little Women, a popular novel written by Louisa
May Alcott, tells the story of young women who earned wealth and happiness
through means such as self sacrifice and honesty. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and
Walt Whitman were two poetic influences of the time; Longfellow based many of
his poems on past accomplishments of the nation, and Whitman believed in
ordinary people and that their differences strengthened the nation. During the
mid 1800s, William Wells Brown became the first African American published
novelist, while John Greenleaf Whittier wrote poetry about abolitionism and
slavery’s evils. Transcendentalist ideas and a need for reform were brought
forth by the nation.
More Information:
1.
http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/transcendentalism/
American Transcendentalism Web is a thorough web source relating to transcendentalism in
America during the mid 1800s. Although information is plentiful on this site,
web links on transcendentalist topics are offered.
2.
http://www.themystica.com/mystica/articles/t/transcendentalism.html
This web page offers some basic information on transcendentalism and people associated with
transcendentalism. Information is offered in an essay-type format.
Recommended Books:
1.
American Journey the Quest for Liberty to 1877
by James Davidson and Kathleen Underwood
2.
World Book. Ed. John Clendenning. Vol. 19. : World Book Inc., 1995. p. 371. "Transcendentalism."