The Impact of Emerson’s Transcendentalism on Modern America

Abstract

This work emphasizes the impact of American transcendentalism as one of the influential movements on modern times which was a reason of the emergence of new way of thinking. This thesis includes a historical background of American transcendentalism which is a philosophical, theological, and a literary movement of the 19th century; a movement that supports individualism in everything and the power of thought, holding a great sense of self-trust and self-confidence. The study shows how important originality and uniqueness is in order to form a real sense of life and to leave peacefully with an independent personality. In this work a focused attention will be on the work of Ralph Waldo Emerson the essay Self-Reliance which examined people’s strong personality, through an analysis that draws a parallel between the movement of transcendentalism in the 19th century and modern times, by examining the historical development of both traditions and discovering the common beliefs and points of convergence of those eras, in addition to how transcendentalism effected other decades. The aim from this research is to point out how transcendentalism still exists right now.