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The Great Traversers By Ralph Waldo Emerson

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The Great Traversers
(A detailed look into three transcendental ideas, as presented by Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Henry David Thoreau) In this spirit I have just discovered Emerson. For forty years I have known something about him, of course—that he was a mystical philosopher; the apostle of transcendentalism in America….” (Abbot, lines 9-10). From within the text of the author of this quote, it can be seen the shear praise and gratitude held for a man by the name of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Emerson as mentioned in the quote, is considered to be the apostle of transcendental thought in America, however he himself did not like the name transcendentalism, and prefered idealism for his revolutionary outlook on thought. Emerson is considered the …show more content…

Thoreau soon found himself living with Emerson, doing odd jobs and becoming one of the man’s best friends. There was however, one key difference between Emerson and Thoreau; Emerson chose to solely ponder his ideas and beliefs in transcendentalism, where Thoreau would try to live the principles of Emerson’s ideas in society. Thoreau would go on to live a highly successful life, writing a multitude of literature about the ideas of transcendentalism. Thoreau’s most famous work would become known as Walden, which entitled Thoreau’s two year journey living on Walden Pond, following the ideologies of transcendentalism. Thoreau would eventually die in 1862 of tuberculosis, leaving his beloved teacher Emerson alone in the world once again. In the end both men are considered the two primary founders of transcendentalism throughout the United States, and are both highly regarded men in both literature and philosophy. The works of Thoreau, and Emerson would have huge impacts on American thought, creating a shift from realism to idealism; pessimism to optimism. In addition to a shift in American thought, the works of Emerson and Thoreau, helped to give Americans a place on the international table of ideology, and created a name for Americans in literature. Both men being transcendentalist almost all their work contained some aspect of transcendental thought; the three most prominent aspects of transcendentalist found throughout both the works of

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