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Optimism and Individualism Big ldea I Optimism and Individualism ach of us has ambitions and plans, hopes club. Among those who participated in the ta and dreams. Our beliefs affect how we the Tianscendental Club were Margaret Fuller, feel about what we can achieve as indi- Henry David Thoreau, and Nathaniel Haw viduals and citizens. Optimists believe The essence of Tianscendentalism was the phi they can reach their goals in life. Ralph known as ldealisrn. For Idealists, such as the Valdo Emerson (see pages 178-1BB) rvas a lifelong philosopher Immanuel Kant, reality is not "our optimist. He also celebrated the individual, proclaim- rh in material objects but instead exists in our ideas ing that by being true to their innermost selves, peo- about those objects. The tanscendentalists ple could accomplish grear rhings. believ, that intuition is a more valuable guide than sensor experience in grasping what nature really is. As Rise of the Common People Emerson exulted in his essay "Nature," "l see the Beginning in the 1820s, the American belief in spectacle of morning from the hilltop over aga the power of the ordinary citizen had a huge impact house, from daybreak to sunrise, with emotions wh on both political and social life. Changes in voring an angel might share." laws expanded the electorate to include nearly all white males. In 1828, these voters elected frontiers- Emerson's Outlook rnan Andrew Jackson as president, marking the arrival of the common people in Arnerican politics. Emerson's optimism convinced him that the univer "Well, if Andrew Jackson can be president," observed existed for humanity's benefit. He rold people that one outraged North Carolina woman, "tl-ren anybody they simply needed to look within themselves to can!" Americans of this period also became involved awaken a sense of wonder and recover their oneness in a broad range of reform movements. These ordi- with the universe: "Every spirit builds itself a house, nary citizens formed associations, raised rnoney, wrote and beyond its house a world, and beyond its world pamphlets, held rallies, gave speeches, and worked to a heaven. Know then that the world exists for you." pass laws designed to improve American society. He believed that ordinary human beings had limit- less potential. His avid reading of mystical Hindu philosophy influenced his conviction that humans are divine because they share in the Over-soul, " All tlwt Adam had, all that Caesar Emerson's name for the spirit that pervades the could", Jouhave and can do." universe. Ernerson summed up his ideas by saying that he had really taught only one thing, that every \Ualdo Emerson person -Ralph was infinite. Emerson's Essays Transcendentalism Emerson is best known for his essays, such as "Self- Emerson's belief in the value of the individual was Reliance." An essay is a short piece of nonfiction shaped by the era in which he lived. In the 1830s, writing on arry topic. Essays can range from serious, the influence of Romanticism began to be felt in the formal analyses to light, personal reflections. United States. One result rvas tanscendentalisrn, a Although Emerson's essays are formal, they are not loosely organized movemenr that embodied the ideas tighrly unified around a single topic. Instead, he pre- of thinkers who were active in New England ir.r the sented his thoughts in a loosely organized series of 1830s and 1840s. Emerson was a leading figure in striking sentences. "The maker of a sentence,,, he rhis group, which began as an informal discussion observed, "launches out into the infinite.,, Big idea 2 Kinship with Nature Thoreau and Nature 1諸lttlTWttz:::∬:l'∬ t盤1: ness.COnnicts between environmentalists Another Nerv Englander, Ernerson's friencl mmercial interests arc widespread. also rejectecl a convenrional life. Like Ernerson, ,Pd C° , 1… HOW impOrtant is nature,and what can Thoreau championed American individualism-'He, spenr we learn frorn it? In the 1800s, Henry David Thoreau rwo years in a cabin he built at Walden pondi (see near his home pages 202-217) revealed his thoughts about this of Concord, Massachusetts. Thoreau sharply quesrion in his journal. Thorear.r believed thar con- observed the natural surroundings there. many tact with wild nature refreshed the hurnan spirit. years," he wrote, "l was self-appoir.rted insl of snow Other writers have described the benefits ofnature,s storms and rain storms and-jid my dLrty fai fully." beaury and the feelings ofpeace that result from Thoreau was not fond of luxuries ancl nor afraid of being out-of.doors. Nature can also teach us respecr striking out on his orvn. for its destructive ways and remind us that, though we Emersont and Thoreau's concept of the natural try we can never wholly subdue its porverful forces. had much in common with the Narive American viewpoint. Both traditions found harmony ancl pur. pose in the unspoiled earth. At Walden, Thoreau communed with ,,you "I wouLd" rather sit on a pumpkin, and nature. He wrote, only need si still long enough in some atracrive spot in ih. ruood haue it all to myself than be , crowded on :hat all itS inhabitants inay exhibit tAemsehes tOl語 a c,)elvet cushion." by turns." Leslie Marmon Silko, a conremporary Native American author, expresses a simiiar view. David Thoreau She writes, "l never feel -Henry lonely when I rvalk alone in the hills: I am surrounded with living beings, with these sandstone ridges and lava rock hills fi U of lif.., America-Garden or Wilderness? Thoreau and Politics The natural environment nf America has produced Thoreau's extreme individualism led hirn to take cer- very different responses in different people. Luther tain.radical folitical posirions. In rhe 1g40s, as the Standing Bear, a Teton Sioux, .rplri.,.d the Native southern states became more determined to protecr American view: "'!(/e did not think of the great open and extend slavery, he came to regard all govemrnent plains, the beautiful rolling hills, and winding ,wild.'Only srreams as a threar to liberty. During the MexicaJmerican with tangled growth as to th" ,hite man (1846-1848), !7ar which many opponenrs of slavery was nature a'wildemess,,and only to him was the be-lieved was being fought to slavery in the land'infested' wirh,wild' animals ancl,savage, people. "rtnbirh,,Civil West, Thoreau wrore his essay Disobedience.,, To us it was tame." He argued that the individual conscience is more The important thar-r ,,Law first European explorers and settlers vierved the law: never made men a and rr America whit rnore just; as both a paradise to be enjoyed and a wil- and by means of their respect for it, at fort demess even rhe to be tarned. Many Europ"o.,r'*.." amazed well-disposed are daily macle the agenrs Pages and delighted ar the number of injustice." of animals ancl plants Tllore that rvere unknown in Europe. But to o,h".r, such as Thoreau was even willing ro spend extra。 \Tilliam Bradford, a leader pilg.i,r, tirne in jail for of rh. *ho refirsing ro pay reached a rax rhar *oui.l l.rru" been ur.d to he obs New England in 1620, A*"i." was a place finance the war. He larer wrote that, WOuld to be feared: "Whar could they behind bars, he r"" lr, , n,a.ou, ura felt freer than his torvnspeople frOm d desolate wilderness, ,ho ,tood outside the full of *ild b.a.t, ,"J*,fa men?,, prison walls but lived in subjugation ro rhe liveぉ srare. 1 from The Journal by Henry David Thoreau :卜 ■ =、 March 5. [185S] . We would fain know something more about these animals and |:榛 stones and trees around us. We are ready to skin the animals alive to come at them. Our sci- entific names contain a very partial information only. lt does not occur to me that there are other names for most of these objects, given by a people who stood between me and them, who had better senses than our race. No science does more than arrange what knowl- edge we have of any class of objects. But, gen- erally speaking, how much more conversant was the lndian with any wild animal or plant than we are, and in his language is implied all that inti- macy, as much as ours is expressed in our lan- guage. How many words in his language about moose, or birch bark and the like! The lndian stood nearer to wild nature than we. The wildest and noblest quadrupeds, even the largest fresh- water fishes, some of the wildest and noblest birds and fairest flowers have actually receded as we advanced, and we have but the most distant knowledge of them. A rumor has come ForesL Albert Bierstadt. Private collection. down to us tlpt the skin of a lion was seen and his roar heard here by an early settler. But there was a race here that slept on his skin. lt was a reau's Journals new light when my guide gave me lndian names for things for which I had only scientific 11Y6fThorcaut wntings,including Walden,are ones before. ln proportion as I understood the 掛狩:縄 3挽譜棘菫fttL language, I saw them from a new point of view. d 罫尋主=電』^高悪士t遮 肥哺唐麓需 おurl鷹 ,Ity´ LiliI° t:ユ )bお玉:驚s:i恐 containing nearly two million words. \ jor-rrnal provides insights into the I`蹴 叫 罫露蹴 掘:恩tl酔多蹴i謝 :需量 群螂∵熙甍齋 Reading Check lnterpreting How did Thoreau,s individualism affect his attitude toward nature and politics? Big ldea 5 The Power of Darkness ur experience of life and the world has a Settings are clark and often conrain decayed d dark side.
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