Ralph Waldo Emerson Essay Examples and Research Papers

How is Transcendentalism still relevant? Transcendentalism is an American literary, political, and philosophical movement that developed in the late 1820’s in Eastern United States. It resembled British Romanticism. Transcendentalism is a reaction to rationalism and intellectualism. Transcendentalism was about a simple life, and enjoying nature. One of the most influential writers to begin this movement…

Transcendentalist philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson delivers a speech to young scholars in the Phi Beta Kappa society at Harvard, introducing “The American Scholar.” In his lecture, Emerson makes his idea clear- forming a new American identity is necessary. Emerson acknowledges how Americans thrive on past European influences, and how they allow it to control their…

Education In this essay, Emerson tells us all about how education is damaged. He has a solution however. He thinks the solution is the educators. In his whole essay he has a sour tone towards the educator, however at the end, he sees things from a new perspective. In this essay, Emerson uses different shifts…

In both Ralph Emerson’s and Walt Whitman’s works, there is a recurring theme of the need for each individual to avoid conformity and false consistency. Both of these writers believe in following your own instincts and ideas. In Emerson’s “Self-Reliance” essay, he argues that people need to avoid conformity, and the only way to be…

Around the time when America had gained independence from Great Britain, the Second Great Awakening was taking place where it emphasized an emotion-based religious style of practice. For example, in order for sinners to turn again from their sinful past, they must perform emotional religious practice to gain personal salvation to be “born again.” While…

Emerson uses the text of his essay to trigger a response in the American writers, intellectuals and scholars. He begins with criticism of the fragmentation of society in terms of occupations and mercantile classes. He considers it a roadblock to true progress of society. He encourages them to celebrate their inner truths and put it…

In Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay From Nature, what makes it so embracing is the harmony that exists between the natural world and human beings. Emerson describes true solitude as going out into nature and leaving behind all activities as well as society. When a man gazes at the stars, he becomes aware of his own…

Emerson’s approach to universal spirituality offers a mystical truth that is beyond the understanding of the ordinary. When defining what that spirit is, it pervades through nature and our comprehension fails us to understand it, nonetheless there are still those that still consider that nature has spiritual properties. Consequently, our awareness of nature’s spirit could…

Ralph Waldo Emerson was an American essayist, philosopher, and poet who was at the center of Transcendentalism, a social movement in the nineteenth century. This movement flourished in response to the Enlightenment era that heavily focused on reason, logic, and science. While the Enlightenment era did lead to technological and industrial advances that were beneficial,…

Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau were two American philosophers whose separate works inspired one another. The two philosophers sought to present the reality of life and what it feels to live a normal life. As such, they subjected themselves to different living conditions to make their works a success. Their main area of…