Transcendentalism celebrates intellectual freedom and originality. Though the transcendentalism emanated from the idea of Romanticism, Transcendentalism was determined to have their literature coloured by their own American background, not by English or German or romantic background, which is a kind of intellectual freedom as they believed in Emerson’s idea that imitation is a suicide, so they didn’t imitate romanticists although they were influenced by them. They celebrate individuality in beliefs, thoughts and opinions They believed in Emerson’s words “we will work with our own hands; we will speak our own minds…A nation of men will for the first time exist because each believes himself inspired by the Divine Soul which also inspires all men.’
Besides, people after transcendentalism started to look into other religions like Hinduism, Buddhism. For example, Emerson’s conversion to Deism. The only known religion before this movement was almost Christianity only, but after this movement, people started to have their own perception and views of other religions. This is a kind of religious freedom as well as an intellectual one. Personally, I don’t like such religions like Hinduism and Buddhism, but I believe that I have to respect them even I don’t like them, and no one even a ruler or a governor should impose restrictions on other’s people religious freedom.
Also, Emerson called for a different type of freedom which is to free yourself from being imprisoned by others’ opinions. He encourages people to be nonconformists “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds”.In my point of view, I can name this kind of freedom self-freedom as the persons who always conform to society and murder their individuality have their ideas and creativity tied inside them.
