Henry David Thoreau And Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Henry and Ralph: Transcendentalists "Only dead men have seen the end of war.” Plato. Plato was a classical Greek philosopher. Who were Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson? What made these two men so close in their ideas and beliefs? How do the writing styles of Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson compare? How strong were Thoreau and Emerson’s belief in the human imagination? What were there individual beliefs in Transcendentalism? These were two men of infinite wisdom and knowledge that still is misunderstood to this day. Their ideology would influence some of the greatest minds of all time. What would Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson think of today’s society? Five major similarities between Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson, illustrates their disbelief in the government and their true passion for Transcendentalism. The first similarity between these two men was who they were as individuals and the people they were amongst their peers. Although they were separated by a generation in age, they were two men of the same beliefs and shared the same ideas. Emerson became acquainted with Thoreau in 1837 when he was thirty-four and Thoreau a twenty year old Harvard senior. (Emerson 145) Emerson attended Harvard and then became a Unitarian minister just like his father had been. Thoreau also attended Harvard but upon graduating, became a teacher and opened up a school. These two men believe that nature is what forces us not to depend on others ideas but to develop our own.(Baker 115) Nature is ever changing so we must keep searching for explanations about human life. They feel that nature is the key to knowing all. Henry David Thoreau tests Ralph Waldo Emerson’s ideas about nature by living at Walden Pond. (Harding 205) Where he discovers that simplicity in physical aspects brings deepness to our mind. It also brings

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