Transcendentalim and Walden Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Transcendentalim and Walden - Essay Example This section analyses Thoreau’s experience in the woods, his connection with nature and his journey to self-awareness. These themes and elements of transcendentalism are strengthened by the use of figures of speech, diction and tone. Thoreau alludes to various aspects of life, and philosophy to strengthen his case. This section restates the concept of transcendentalism, the elements that exemplify it, and the values that Thoreau seeks to teach his audience. The lessons to be learnt from Thoreau’s Walden are the concepts of free thought, individualism, self-reliance, and self-awareness and non-conformity in a bid to search for the true meaning of life. It should be highlighted, however, that people’s truths are different, and one should go on a personal journey of free spirited thought in order to find and live their own truth. People should speak their truths, as they live it. Walden is a book that Henry Thoreau uses to not only exemplify his beliefs, but those of transcendentalism. The book depicts transcendentalism as being a progressive movement towards individualism, self-reliance, education and people’s rights; one also concludes that transcendentalists are critical of social institutions, the government, religion, laws and creeping industrialization. One of the most important teachings that Henry Thoreau seeks to teach his audience, and that many people can pick up is that it is better for person to live frankly and openly as who they are, than to live as society or other external forces oblige one to live. People should learn to speak their truth, that which they have learnt for themselves and not that which they have been taught to accept as true; people should learn from the abundance of the universe and from the depths of their existence so as to be able to speak the truth as one lives it. An intelligent reader should be able to derive that