American Literature: Romanticism   Student Midterm Samples 2015 midterm assignment 3. Web Highlights

Hanna Mak

3. Web Highlights: A Discussion on Transcendentalism

The most positive element to be found in reviewing the work of others is that the process often either reveals new aspects of an idea, or provides a more eloquent organization of previously known ideas, increasing the appreciation and understanding of the reviewer. Therefore, this seemed a perfect opportunity to focus my attention on several different interpretations of Transcendentalism, a topic that this course focused on heavily, yet failed to draw my interest as strongly as the others. Although many of the concepts introduced by Emerson were attractive, I frequently struggled to grasp the practicality of their application. In any case, it was my hope that the writings of others might reveal some valuable subtleties which my own understanding had previously glossed over.

Joseph Bernard’s short essay, “Ascending to the Heavens” analyzes Walt Whitman’s poem, “There Was a Child Went Forth,” and breaks the poem into two major Transcendental forms—the widening spiral and the upward form. The description of the widening spiral was particularly useful, because the concept itself is highly visual. Supplying the definition with a line-by-line breakdown from the poem, as the author did, seems the most effective way of demonstrating such a visual concept. Bernard states that the child’s widening spiral begins with a knowledge of nature, then widens gradually into a knowledge of people, and then the ephemeral nature of life itself, capped off by a series of philosophical questions about the nature of life which “could not exist” without the elucidating spiral. This concept the author connected closely to the other, which was the upward form—the “divine purpose or heavenly call that gives meaning to life.” Although I would have preferred that the writer pose a greater distinction between the two terms, I appreciated this essay’s depiction of these forms as a philosophical tool which gives rise to further questions—as possibly a guide, rather than a simple end.

Christine Moon’s research journal, “Searching for a Meaning in Ralph Waldo Emerson’s ‘Self-Reliance,’” was crafted with the intention of discovering some notion of individual truth through self-reflective journals, just as Emerson and Thoreau once did. Through the analysis of a series of scholarly articles, the author sought an answer to a few broad philosophical questions concerning the pursuit and essential nature of truth.

The first article, by David Jacobson, sought to explain many of Emerson’s ideas in greater detail. Moon summarizes the author’s belief that “the personal will of an individual is a separate being, without that, it would be impossible to exist in this world as an individual.” The second article, by Jay W. Hudson, examined the religion of Emerson, and provided textual examples in order to piece together his individual notion of faith. Interestingly enough, Moon found that this author believed he had more in common with Eastern religion than with his original Unitarian education, due to his belief in the internalized concept of God. The third article, by Anthony Petruzzi, defines the Emersonian concept of the experiencing-self, in which intuition, which is bestowed upon birth, is honed over time via the development of individuality and one’s education. This development, as the author claims, can only be facilitated through the power of reflection.  Finally, the article by Regis Michaud, examined Emerson’s perception of the mind and intellect. He asserts that since Emerson expects the exaltation and cultivation of our individual thought and personal will, it is our “intellect and thought that produce the soul.”

These were some of the most original and interesting points summarized in the research journal. It seems that the drawback to this sort of project, however, was that with only the summary of each article to guide me, and no immediate ability to read the original articles myself, many of the author’s points quickly overlapped. While this usefully allowed for many different entranceways to a single complex idea, the piece might have benefited from more explicit conclusions about the points being made overall. Moon concluded her research by relating her experience of enlightenment and inspiration, and affirming her initial assertion that everyone carries some sense of “inborn knowledge” that they should pay heed to. While she admitted that many of Emerson’s beliefs could often be considered common sense, she seemed to consider his arguments to be useful for those who are lost, and for those who need to be reminded of their own freedom.

Meryl Bazaman’s essay, “Extending Individualism in American Romanticism,” the author examines individualist themes in James Fenimore Cooper’s Last of the Mohicans and Thoreau’s Resistance to Civil Government, and uses their definitions of individualism to the application of Nietzsche and Ayn Rand’s works. Although this piece focused not on exclusively Transcendentalist ideas, their connection to other, seemingly disparate texts proved useful to my general understanding. Bazaman first explains Cooper’s notion of individuality through the analysis of Hawkeye—it is his lack of connection to society and nationality sets him apart, but strangely, his status as “uncrossed” and “white” are also deemed necessary components of his individuality. Furthermore, his “intelligence and energy” Bazaman asserts, are also important tenets of the Romantic individual. Finally, drawing also from Thoreau and from Nietzsche, she makes the claim that the ideal individual must be “unafraid to adhere to his own higher truth however poorly it is received by the masses he encounters.” In this manner, the author makes this interesting connection between unifying individualist themes in all four texts. For my purposes, this cross-text examination served to highlight the widespread influence of Thoreau’s ideals as philosophical tools both inside and outside of the conventional Transcendentalist mindset.

Ultimately, though I set out to change my opinion concerning Transcendentalist thought, I have completed this review with mixed results. On the one hand, Bernard’s essay was helpful in delineating some of the image-heavy terms of Transcendentalism, while Moon’s project provided a variety of useful explanations for its more abstract concepts. Bazaman’s essay made many thematic connections between other texts, which I found more accessible. On the other hand, however, I still find it difficult to dismiss the problematic nature of too much emphasis on the power of the individual alone. On paper, there is a certain beauty in such a strong, internalized empowerment, but without moderation, such an emphasis could also be easily corruptible.