May 6, 2014
Agenda - 5/6/2014 Journal/SSR What is an American? You might be a Transcendentalist if Different Drummer Intro Notes The Transcendentalist Movement Emerson & Thoreau Quote Analysis Comparison to Bon Jovi s It s My Life Henry Wadsworth Longfellow A Psalm of Life Homework: Finish Henry Wadsworth Longfellow s A Psalm of Life and answer the questions on the worksheet. Don t forget your yellow textbook next time!
Writing Prompt Leader or Follower - 5/6/2014 Are you a trendsetter? Do you take the lead in class or with your friends? Do your friends look to you to make decisions about what you re doing or where you re going? Or do you participate in groups without leading them? Do you go along with the things your friends decide? Are you comfortable with whichever role you play? Give a few examples.
What is an American? This is the overarching question we have had this year. Let s see what we know so far
Puritan Society Remember where America started: Everything is based around religion The individual has no power, society has power
What is the American Identity? One of the major hurdles after the Revolutionary War was trying to find an identity and defining what the term American means.
Romanticism These writers focused on escape from society through a use of the supernatural. Tall Tales and Legends The Devil and Tom Walker The Raven The Masque of the Red Death Dr. Heidegger s Experiement This was when individualism became popular. (Person/human has complete power, individual is center of focus)
The Modern Era The Great Gatsby Ultimately our American Dream is what we make of it. Greed and corruption are all around us, but we have to decide what our dream will be and how we will go after it. If we choose to let the dream consume us, it will. The Things They Carried The weight of what happens in our lives (good or bad) is carried with us. We have to choose whether to let it stop us or rise above it.
You might be a transcendentalist if... 1. You ve ever stared out the window during class and wanted to be outside instead of inside. 2. You ve had a meaningful experience or come to an important decision while in the midst of nature. 3. You ve ever done something that no one else was doing. 4. You ve ever marched to the beat of your own drummer. 5. You ve felt that following the traditions of a church is not necessary to be a spiritual person. 6. You believe people are basically good at heart. 7. You think that a person should trust his instincts, his gut-feelings instead of analyzing everything to death. 8. You think going against the crowd is acceptable. 9. You hate that high school seems to be all about fitting in instead of being your own person. 10. You have big dreams that might seem unrealistic to anyone but you. 11. You think that people who try to dress like, act like, or talk like someone else make fools out of themselves. 12. You think God is present in all human beings. 13. You think understanding nature is key to understanding God and the universe. 14. You hate the fact that you seem to fall into the same routines every day. 15. You feel that you are often misunderstood because you are different from others in school or society.
If you got a majority of yesses You might be a transcendentalist! So, what do you think it means to be a transcendentalist?
Transcendentalism Transcendentalism was a religious and philosophical movement that was developed during the late 1820s and 1830s in the Eastern region of the United States as a protest to the general state of culture and society. Transcendentalists believed that society and its institutions particularly organized religion and political parties ultimately corrupted the purity of the individual. They had faith that people are at their best when truly "selfreliant" and independent. It is only from such real individuals that true community could be formed.
Different Drummer If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away. ~Henry David Thoreau We are going to spend the next several weeks talking about the individual in society through short stories, novel excerpts, a movie, and especially poetry.
Ralph Waldo Emerson Ralph Waldo Emerson was an American Transcendentalist poet, philosopher and essayist during the 19th century. One of his best-known essays is "Self- Reliance. Synopsis Ralph Waldo Emerson was born on May 25, 1803, in Boston, Massachusetts. 1832, he became a Transcendentalist, leading to the later essays "Self-Reliance" and "The American Scholar." Emerson continued to write and lecture into the late 1870s. He died on April 27, 1882, in Concord, Massachusetts. Early Life and Education He was the son of William and Ruth (Haskins) Emerson; his father was a clergyman, as many of his male ancestors had been. He attended the Boston Latin School, followed by Harvard University (from which he graduated in 1821) and the Harvard School of Divinity. He was licensed as a minister in 1826 and ordained to the Unitarian church in 1829. Emerson married Ellen Tucker in 1829. When she died of tuberculosis in 1831, he was grief-stricken. Her death, added to his own recent crisis of faith, caused him to resign from the clergy. Travel and Writing In 1832 Emerson traveled to Europe, where he met with literary figures Thomas Carlyle, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth. When he returned home in 1833, he began to lecture on topics of spiritual experience and ethical living. He moved to Concord, Massachusetts, in 1834 and married Lydia Jackson in 1835. Emerson s early preaching had often touched on the personal nature of spirituality. Now he found kindred spirits in a circle of writers and thinkers who lived in Concord, including Margaret Fuller, Henry David Thoreau and Amos Bronson Alcott (father of Louisa May Alcott).
Henry David Thoreau American essayist, poet, and practical philosopher, Henry David Thoreau was a New England Transcendentalist and author of the book Walden. Synopsis Henry David Thoreau was born on July 12, 1817, in Concord, Massachusetts. He began writing nature poetry in the 1840s, with poet Ralph Waldo Emerson as a mentor and friend. In 1845 he began his famous twoyear stay on Walden Pond, which he wrote about in his master work, Walden. He also became known for his beliefs in Transcendentalism and civil disobedience, and was a dedicated abolitionist.
Henry David Thoreau Walden Pond & Civil Disobedience In 1845, Thoreau built a small home for himself on Walden Pond, on property owned by Emerson. He spent more than two years there. Seeking a simpler type of life, Thoreau flipped the standard routine of the times. He experimented with working as little as possible rather than engage in the pattern of six days on with one day off. Sometimes Thoreau worked as a land surveyor or in the pencil factory. He felt that this new approach helped him avoid the misery he saw around him. "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation," Thoreau once wrote. His schedule gave him plenty of time to devote to his philosophical and literary interests. Thoreau eventually started writing about his Walden Pond experiment as well. Many were curious about his revolutionary lifestyle, and this interest provided the creative spark for a collection of essays. Published in 1854, Walden; or, Life in the Woods espoused living a life close to nature. The book was a modest success, but it wasn't until much later that the book reached a larger audience. Over the years, Walden has inspired and informed the work of naturalists, environmentalists and writers. While living at Walden Pond, Thoreau also had an encounter with the law. He spent a night in jail after refusing to pay a poll tax. This experience led him to write one of his best-known and most influential essays, "Civil Disobedience" (also known as "Resistance to Civil Government"). Thoreau held deeply felt political views, opposing slavery and the Mexican-American War. He made a strong case for acting on one's individual conscience and not blindly following laws and government policy. "The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right," he wrote. Since its publication in 1849, "Civil Disobedience" has inspired many leaders of protest movements around the world. This non-violent approach to political and social resistance has influenced American civil rights movement activist Martin Luther King Jr. and Mohandas Gandhi, who helped India win independence from Great Britain, among many others.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) American poet, novelist, translator, playwright, and travel writer. He wrote poetry that reflected a respect for nature, a new way of thinking, and optimism. Others, like Wadsworth, set the stage for a different perspective for American thinking, one that embraced the natural world. Voices of the Night, illustrates his view that poetry should be an instrument for improving the condition of society, and advancing the great purpose of human happiness. Voices is distinguished by his Psalm of Life and Light of the Stars, popular inspirational pieces characterized by simple truths and maxims (aphorisms).
Quotes We are going to take turns reading the quotes from Walden and Self- Reliance. Checkmark the ones you think you understand. We will read them again and you must narrow the list down to your favorite. What do you think the quote means?
Now that we understand the movement Let s compare these transcendentalist ideals from Emerson and Thoreau to Bon Jovi s It s My Life http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vx2u5 uuu3de