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Janelle David

Molly Fenn

English 4

19 October 2015

 

Transcendentalist vs. Society

           Thoreau, Emerson, and Christopher McCandless (Transcendentalist) believed that all people should exclude themselves from society in order to enjoy nature and live a happy life, but these beliefs actually led to imprisonment and death. Is it a good idea? Should we actually exclude ourselves from society because we should enjoy nature and it will lead us to a happier life than what society gave us?

           What is society? Society is the aggregate of people living together in a more or less ordered community. We believe that in today’s society, in order to live a good life you need to have a stable job and good education. An article in Teen Ink written by AndreeaIoan97 from Cathedral City, CA states, “ Society is a How to live Your Life manual. The  real world is divided into many parts. You have the Diplomats, Workers, Freelancers, and the Currently Unemployed.” It is true, our society is not perfect. In some ways, I do agree with with what the Transcendentalist believe. However, in some ways do you have to really exclude yourself from society in order to live a happier life?

           From a Transcendentalist point of view, Ralph Waldo Emerson stated in Nature, “To go into solitude, a man needs to retire as much from his chamber as from society”. Emerson is the center of the American transcendental movement. He sets out most of his ideas and values from his book, “Nature” and it represented at least ten years of intense study in philosophy, religion, and literature, and in his First Series of essays. From what I can interpret, he believes that in order to live a peaceful life you need to exclude yourself from society. I can see where he thinks this is a good idea, but is that the only way to live a peaceful life? If you live in nature, you also have to live a life that is difficult. In order to survive in the nature, of course you would need shelter, food and other survival necessities. Which leads me to another Transcendentalist, Henry David Thoreau.

From Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau, he believed, “Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the graves with the sing still in them. Thoreau was talking about society and what was wrong with it. He believe that people’s first obligation is to do what they believe is right not to follow the law and to not follow the law that was created by the majority. According to the Sparknotes summary for Civil Disobedience, Thoreau believed, “A person is not obligated to devote his life to eliminating evils from the world, but he is obligated not to participate in such evils. This includes not being a member of an unjust institution (like the government)”. He wanted to disobey the laws that was created by the government which he did. But not following what the rules of society are, it lead him to consequences that are imprisonment. I believe that this is a good reason why he ended up in prison because he believed, “Disobedience is the foundation of liberty”. I believe that this is true because we need to stand up for what we believe in. We cannot just stay quiet and obey what is wrong. This is what lead Thoreau to want to exclude himself from society because he wanted to live deliberately.

             Henry David Thoreau stated, “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life and see if I could not learn what is had teach and not when I came to die discover that I had not lived it.” What is living deliberately? Living deliberately is wanting to live life to the fullest and to explore what is out there. Living deliberately is living with things that are consist of not only nature, but society. I can see what Thoreau was saying and also, I agree. I agree that you need to find the essential facts of life. You need to know what else is out there, but I believe that once you find this you have to go back to society because how else will you survive? Living in nature is more difficult than living in society because it is a life or death situation. You need to know how to survive. Living in nature was the life of Christopher McCandless.

             Who is Christopher McCandless aka “Alexander Supertramp”? From his website, “Chris was a young man that travelled throughout North America living off the barest of essentials and in most cases. Unfortunately, he paid the ultimate price for this in the end and was found perished in an abandoned Fairbanks City bus on the Stampede Trail.” McCandless believe that he NEEDED to exclude himself from society. He wanted to live a happy life and explore what is out there. He believes, “Happiness does not rely on the people you are surrounded with, happiness is only real when shared.” I feel like he was talking about nature and that we all share it. He was unhappy because of his life before exploring nature. Based on the movie, he believed that life is not about society. He did not want to live a luxurious life. So what did he do? He burned his social security and all of his earnings, he burned it too. This is why I thought it was a bad idea because it lead him to death. He died because he did not have food which lead him to look for wild berries in order to survive. He ate the wrong berry so this lead him to death.

             Overall, do you really need to live a life that is excluding yourself from society? I feel like you do not, but in some cases I do. Before writing this essay, I believed that you should not because I felt like it was an ignorant thing to do because it is a life and death situation. Living in nature is hard and one mistake can lead you to death. If you live in nature for a long period of time, in my opinion, that is a bad idea because you can end up how Christopher McCandless is. I get it, society is not at it’s right place right now because not everyone has a job and not everyone has a home because we believe that in today’s society, in order to live a good life you need to have a stable job and good education. But will it make you happy if you live deliberately in nature? Then so be it. I would not of course because I do not want to die. I feel that it is a good idea to exclude yourself from society if you are doing it for the right reasons. If you are doing it just to rebel then it is a bad idea because it is a life and death situation and you do not know how you will end up. Christopher McCandless did not know that he will die out there. He believe that he will survive, but he did not. For people today, it is hard, but we need to learn how to deal with it because that is life and if something is wrong, then stand up for it.

 

Bibliography:

Transcendentalist vs. Society Essay
For English, I chose my Transcendentalist vs. Society Essay for my best work because I thought that lecture was really interesting and it was probably the best essay I wrote so far. 
Solar Power Oven
For our physics project, we were told to make a solar powered oven. A solar cooker is a device which uses the energy of direct sunlight to heat, cook or pasteurize food or drink. Solar cookers are low tech devices used for cooking.
Science Fair Project

For my science fair project, I questioned whether who is better in depth perception, boys or girls? But based on my project, they are both equal.

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