Rh Emerson and Thoughts About His Life

American culture

RR#1 [Ralph Waldo Emerson ]

Reading the selection for Ralph Waldo Emerson gave me a sense that he was very accomplished. I found it very interesting how he was seen as the epitome of an American fledgling author. This is a honor I think, for him to be seen as the most influential artist in America at the time. His approach to religion seemed yet a bit different then all the other authors and visionaries we have studied thus far in the course. The emotional drain that must have been when he lost his child must really have put a great stress on him.

The explanations given about him as a young man were very inspiring. One that I found to be a very moving topic was that of the fact that “made him the leader of an intellectual avant-garde in New England.” (48). Moreover I thought that he was incredibly brave overall by attempting to criticize the American culture.

The introduction of the group called the transcendentalists was a very courageous thing to do. Granted they did “link it with philosophical traditions of Plato and Kant.”

(48). Even though this was the case, I do not believe that everyone in America at that time really had the same beliefs that they thought that Plato should be their guiding light. Alternatively though his thoughts about idealism were probably more on target as to what the American populous at that time wanted at that time, this was the ideas of “the high-minded aspiration toward the good , a quality that accounted for the aesthetic sensibility” (48).

His next idea, that of the “individualistic nonconformity ” (48), probably didn’t go over all to well with the American people. The ideas that he is portraying here seem too new age and most probably not going to be liked by the American populous. Not very many of the other previous authors decided to push such ideas such as these. Although Jefferson had some similar aspirations in his texts.

Emerson’s ideas, even...