Transendentalism

In the essay "Nature", the author shows many signs that he is talking about transcendentalism. His whole outlook on life is the same as the transcendentalists looked at life. They believed that the only way to talk to God was through solitude or nature. They also believed that everybody shared a sole and that Got spoke to us through our intuition. In the essay he used things such as childhood, solitation, and a sense of peace.

In the first paragraph, the author is talking about being alone but not feeling alone. He says that "I am not solitary while I read and write, though nobody is with me." I think he feels a sense of God being with him when he is alone. That maybe when he is writing God is giving him inspiration and showing his thoughts through him. This shows transcendentalism because he is talking to God through solitude. This means he doesn't need to be around people to feel close to God, but he feels even closer to him when nobody is around.

In the essay"Self-Reliance", the author also shows signs of transcendentalism but in a different way. Transcendentalists also believed that God spoke through the work of his people. That the work that was being done was the work of God being made through people's intuition. This also goes alone with individuality. Transcendentalists also believed that everybody should be independent because God gave you that talent. God gave you the power to do everything yourself and that other people where there to do the same.

In the first paragraph, the author says "There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion;" To me, he is talking about being independent and that you cannot be like everybody else because if you are then you are not doing what God indented you to do. You have to rely on only yourself for this is God's will.

The first sentence of "Resistance to Civil Government" is one that really caught my attention. The author says "That government is best which governs least." Transcendentalists believed that there should be no government, that the people should run the country and that the government was just a waist of time and money. This sentence shows their beliefs right off the bat. He is saying that the government is at its best when it is doing nothing and letting the country run itself the way it should be run.

Another good sign of Transcendentalism is on the third page. The author writes "When I came out of prison-for someone interfered, and paid the tax-I did not perceive that great changes had taken place on the common." In my opinion, the author is saying that even though we pay these taxes to the government, there is no change going on. That these taxes are suppose to pay for things to make our country better and yet there is no change to be seen.