Transcendentalism

Focus Essay
Transcendentalism

As American literature moved past its early beginnings, new literary styles began to develop, most significantly in the form of two contrasting philosophies. While Transcendentalists embraced the idea of mans inherently “good” values believing anything is possible and disagreeing with conformity, Anti-Transcendentalists saw exactly the opposite. They believed man to be a mixture of good and evil and saw life as a quest. Two American authors who express the values of Transcendentalism and Anti-Transcendentalism would be Emerson and Melville, respectively.
As a Transcendentalist, Emerson expresses non-conformity in the passage “Self-Reliance.” “Whoso would be a man would be a non-conformist”(pg 225) shows the importance of society to man and how people should not be focused on ‘foolish consistency’ (pg 225) and being misunderstood. People should be original with one another and not focus so much on the conspiracy of soc...