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Henry David Thoreau: Transcendentalism

by: Zuri Wansley

Walden Pond

Walden (1854)

Thoreau's home

Bibliography

Thoreau wrote the story Walden after his neighbors questioned his isolated stay at Walden Pond. This story, considered the peak of not only transcendentalist literature, but also American literature, provided insight on how Thoreau built the house on his own, and cared for himself. He also spoke about how his solitude helped him better view the society around him. Another aspect of the book revolves around nature, and how people affect the environment.

  • http://www.thoreausociety.org/life-legacy
  • http://www.transcendentalists.com/what.htm
  • http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/walden/summary.html

What is Transcendentalism?

Background

How Does Literature Reflect Society?

Transcendentalist are "a generation of well educated people who lived in the decades before the American Civil War and the national division that it both reflected and helped to create." These people believed in literary independence, and aimed to create unique American literature that was different from that of the European nations. They also held spiritual focus above materialistic items. Most transcendentalist became a voice for social reform movements, such as anti-slavery.

During the time of Thoreau's writing, America was experiencing economic depression as well as the ongoing debate regarding slavery. Thoreau wrote Walden as a artistic reflection of the world around him. He also wrote Civil Disobedience as a response to racial injustice following his imprisonment in 1846.

Born in Concord, MA on July 12,1817, Thoreau was an American writer who used civil disobedience, and transcendentalism in his art. He became a student of Emerson's Transcendentalist Ideas. He began writing Walden in 1846 as a lecture in response to the questions of townspeople.

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