Transcendentalism

From Nature:

My outlook on this story was both positive and negative. I agree that a lot of people can just go out into nature like in the story and sit down, chill out and try to approach talking to God or relaxing and waiting until he speaks to you through you mind. Personally, I saw a negative look on the story because, I don't think you should have to go out into nature for God to speak to you. If God felt like he needed to speak to you there is many ways he can do that without waiting on you to come talk to him. I believe if God needs to speak to you or he wants something to happen, it will be whether you come fourth or not. God can speak to you by mind but he can also make things happen or play out like he wants them to.

The reason I thought this story was an example of Transcendentalism was because in the story he said " Standing on the bare ground-my head bathed in blithe air, and up lifted into infinite space-all mean egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eyeball; I am nothing; I see all; the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part or parcel of God." What that mean is he is going out into nature and he is relaxing feeling the air and he is trying to approach God to talk to him, then he feels like he is becoming part of God or he is god. Transcendentalist believed if you go to approach god he will speak to you through nature or your mind, that's why they thought the mind was the most powerful thing, and that's why this is an example of Transcendentalism.


From Self-Reliance:

To me this story was positive because I agree that in the story he is talking about how you should try to be different and not like others and how you should do your own thing and not copy others or go with the group. So the reason i agree with this story is because I don't think you should follow a crowd I think you should walk alone and share your own ideas even though it might hurt you or it may seem bad, it will be good in the end.

A quote that stood out to me was " A man is relieved gay when he has put his heart into his word and done his best; but what he has said or done otherwise shall give him no peace." and " Envy is ignorance, and imitation is suicide." The first quote talks about how a man is relieved and happy when he is doing his own hard work, but when he is doing someone else's work he will have no peace and it will not bring him anything good. I chose that quote because transcendentalist did not believe in doing someone else's work because they believed god spoke to them through the mind and if they are doing someone else's work then they are not doing what god wanted them to do, they are doing what god wanted someone else to do. The second quote is saying pretty much the same thing.







Resistance to Civil Government:



To me this story had not a negative but sort of a positive message to me. The reason I felt it was positive was because its not that I don't believe in government its just I don't believe in the way they make the dumbest laws sometimes and do really stupid stuff that gets us into wars that cost us billions of dollars. I also believe that if we didn't have some sort of outline of how to do and what not to do things life would be crazy because society would go insane.

The example from the story that I chose was " That government is best which governs least." because I think if we have a government we should have some kind of freedom. America is a place that is supposed to be free and it is for the most part, but I believe the government stays in peoples home lives to much. The reason Transcendentalist did not like to much government is because they believed in god speaking to you and whatever he says to you is what you should do. If they had to much government they didn't want to do what god told someone else to do, only what he told them to do.