Post by danielleg07 on May 19, 2008 20:38:28 GMT -5
Danielle Gillyard
May 18, 2008
English III Honors, Period 7
A Natural Relationship:
An Analyzation of the Definition of Transcendentalism and its Connection to Asher Durand’s “Kindred Spirits”
During the nineteenth century in New England, Transcendentalism was known as a philosophy encompassing unique and radical new ideology and literature. The doctrine challenged societal interpretations of the world and instead encouraged original thought in contradiction to pre established views and traditions. This theme of original thought is evident in the transcendental works of Henry Thoreau and Ralph Emerson. Through their works, Transcendentalism can be defined as a philosophy that encourages experience and thought in an effort to form a genuine relationship with the surrounding and realize one’s full potential. In Emerson’s “Self-Reliance” he alludes to the importance of thought stating, “The highest merit we ascribe to Moses, Plato, and Milton is that they set at naught books and traditions, and spoke not what men but what they thought” (Emerson 19). Emerson describes that the persons to whom we attribute greatness are those whom reject tradition and the ideology of the cosensus. Thoreau also encourages experience in his essay “Where I Lived and What I Lived For”. In the essay he describes his retreat from civilization in an attempt to experience unadulterated nature. By forging his new path and having genuine experiences Thoreau asserts that, “Olympus is but the outside of the earth everywhere” (Thoreau 168). He effecively states that by creating and forging new relationships with the world, and especially nature, any man can invent an Olympus in any place that he resides and fulfill his potential as a “divine creator”.
The portrait Kindred Spirits by Hudon River School artist Asher Durand clearly exposes a transcendentalist theme. In the portrait, the two men are surrounded by the beauty of nature including the babbling stream, the trees, and the mountains far in the distance. The sun illuminates the scene daring to give the men more than a merely “superficial” view of their surroundings. They retreat from civilization in an attempt to form original thought and a bond with nature. The men discuss the beauty and by being in the presence of nature they have their own experience, not accepting society’s interpretation of the world. Through this experience, the men become closer to fulfilling their human potential as the power to create, according to Emerson, stems from the harmony of man and nature.
May 18, 2008
English III Honors, Period 7
A Natural Relationship:
An Analyzation of the Definition of Transcendentalism and its Connection to Asher Durand’s “Kindred Spirits”
During the nineteenth century in New England, Transcendentalism was known as a philosophy encompassing unique and radical new ideology and literature. The doctrine challenged societal interpretations of the world and instead encouraged original thought in contradiction to pre established views and traditions. This theme of original thought is evident in the transcendental works of Henry Thoreau and Ralph Emerson. Through their works, Transcendentalism can be defined as a philosophy that encourages experience and thought in an effort to form a genuine relationship with the surrounding and realize one’s full potential. In Emerson’s “Self-Reliance” he alludes to the importance of thought stating, “The highest merit we ascribe to Moses, Plato, and Milton is that they set at naught books and traditions, and spoke not what men but what they thought” (Emerson 19). Emerson describes that the persons to whom we attribute greatness are those whom reject tradition and the ideology of the cosensus. Thoreau also encourages experience in his essay “Where I Lived and What I Lived For”. In the essay he describes his retreat from civilization in an attempt to experience unadulterated nature. By forging his new path and having genuine experiences Thoreau asserts that, “Olympus is but the outside of the earth everywhere” (Thoreau 168). He effecively states that by creating and forging new relationships with the world, and especially nature, any man can invent an Olympus in any place that he resides and fulfill his potential as a “divine creator”.
The portrait Kindred Spirits by Hudon River School artist Asher Durand clearly exposes a transcendentalist theme. In the portrait, the two men are surrounded by the beauty of nature including the babbling stream, the trees, and the mountains far in the distance. The sun illuminates the scene daring to give the men more than a merely “superficial” view of their surroundings. They retreat from civilization in an attempt to form original thought and a bond with nature. The men discuss the beauty and by being in the presence of nature they have their own experience, not accepting society’s interpretation of the world. Through this experience, the men become closer to fulfilling their human potential as the power to create, according to Emerson, stems from the harmony of man and nature.