Post V: Contemporary Example of Transcendentalism

Thesis: Ariel is a modern day example of Transcendentalism because she decides that she is sick of living the life people have set up for her. She decides to exceed the limits of a normal mermaid and does something that no mermaid has ever done before. She became a human.

In the movie "The Little Mermaid" a young mermaid has a dream of becoming a human. This mermaids name is Ariel. Ariel was one of four daughter of thee King Triton. She has this dream of having a perfect life on land and falling in love with a young sailor she had saved from a ship wreck that had happened close to her home. "What would I give to live where you are/ What would I pay to stay here beside you/ what would I do to see you smiling at me/ Where would we walk/ where would we run/ If we could stay all day in the sun/ Just you and me/ and I could be/ part of your world" was a quote from Little Mermaids "Part of Your World" during the scene where she had saved the prince and he is unconscious on the beach. In this song she conveyed her love for him and for being a free human without society's restrains. Ariel and like all other mermaids were forbidden to go near the humans because there king preaches that humans are nothing but evil. Ariel decides for herself that she wanted to be the judge of how she felt about humans herself. So she made a deal with an evil witch named Ursula. Ursula agreed that if she could keep Ariel's voices, she would give her legs in return and human like traits. She ends up on land, but with no voice. She finally meets the prince but she cannot talk to him. She learns the ways of humans until Ursula uses her voice, pretends to be her and steals Eric from her. In the end They end up getting married and falling in love together. Her dad learns that humans aren't so bad and they all have a huge party together.

Self- Reliance: I noticed self-reliance in Ariel from the start of the movie. At the beginning of the movie she tries to go off and look for treasure by herself. She left her important duties behind to go do something that she wanted to do. She went up to the surface to watch the humans on her own and she saved Prince Eric. She had to go with her gut feeling and that was really what she wanted to do. Her dad eventually found out about it and he got very mad. She decided that she was going to find her love and prove her dad wrong. She then goes to Ursula and makes the trade with her. She decides to do this on her own as well and has to live on the surface alone.

Intuition: Ariel shows a lot of intuition through out this movie as well. Ariel has the passion for knowing more about humans and proving that they can be amazing. Many other mermaids have been living under the law of tradition, which is that humans are bad and to try and stay as far always as you can from them. She has a dream and a mindset that allows her to dive deeper into information. She has a huge collection of thingamabobs and whatchamacallits. Every time she finds something new she takes it up to her friend Scuttle to figure out what it is. For example she found a fork in the ship that she was looking in the beginning of the movie. She took it up to Scuttle and he said it was for brushing your hair. Here is another example below.

Scuttle: I haven't seen this in years, this is wonderful! 
Ariel: What is it? 
Scuttle: A banded, bulbous snarfblatt. Ariel, Flounder: Oh. 

Post IV: “Civil Disobedience”

Civil Disobedience means to not pay taxes or bills or follow certain laws to create a peaceful form of protest. Throughout history there have been many different moments to create present day. Henry David Thoreau created a book on Civil Disobedience. This novel criticizes the American social institutions and policies. It also talks about slavery in America and the Mexican American war. Thoreau is a very big transcendentalist and he did not believe in government or laws. He believed that all of it was useless and that the majority has more power then they will ever have. He thought this because it is the strongest group they will ever have but not because they hold a good view point. “I was not designed to be forced. I will breathe after my own fashion. Let us see who is the strongest.” (Henry David Thoreau, On the Duty of Civil Disobedience). This is a very important saying that describe most of what he was trying to explain through the book. He believes that the thought of transcendentalism is  a new way of life and could be better than the way people are living under a locked down society. He wanted to escape from that and create more of a free life for those who wanted it and would work for it.

“An individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law” is  a quote written by Martin Luther King Jr.  Martin Luther King Jr. was man trying to create freedom and peace between two races. He went above and beyond to make a difference in this world. He like many other dark skinned people at the time were being treated very unfairly by the lighter colored people and they were very tired of it. Him and many others did not follow the laws or rights because they wanted to create that freedom for millions of  people who feel the same, and in order to do that they had to step outside of their comfort zone and do what was right to change history. Martin Luther King Jr. and Henry David Thoreau were very alike because they both believe in a new way of living. they did not only do this for themselves but for many people that believe in the same rights as them.  They both represented many aspects of a Transcendentalist.

Post III: Thoreau

Henry David Thoreau was an author, poet, philosopher, abolitionist, naturalist, tax resister, development critic, surveyor, and historian. Thoreau fist became very interested in transcendentalism after reading Emerson's books. Emerson eventually ended up helping Thoreau write poems and books. Thoreau was basing most of his ideas off of Emerson ideas and thoughts. eventually he had all that he needed and moved out into the forest. He moved out in the forest in around 1845. He mixed his thought's and Emerson's thoughts together and incorporated them all into the book Walden.Emerson went to the woods to remove yourself from society.

“I learned this, at least, by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.” that was a quote from Henry David Thoreau's Walden. Thoreau took a new path to life and removed himself from society. He represented transcendentalism himself because this is not usually something people do.

"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you've imagined." is another quote that Henry David Thoreau had stated upon his long journey in the woods. This quote means to pick a way to live you life, then live that life to the very fullest. Go in the direction that you want to go and go that way with courage and no regrets at all.  Another reason why many knew that Henry was a huge transcendentalist because he was never afraid to be himself. “be yourself- not your idea of what you think somebody else's idea of yourself should be.” is one of his quotes. Again he had  a mindset that allowed him to ignore the opinions of other people. He was a transcendentalist.

Post II: Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson was a very inspirational man when it comes to the thought of Transcendentalism. Ralph Waldo Emerson was a very famous essayist, lecturer and poet. Ralph Waldo Emerson lead the transcendentalism era as well as many others who helped him. Ralph Waldo Emerson is very well known for his short story Nature and for starting the transcendentalism period in the 1900's.

Optimism: Optimism means to be faithful and confident in what the future holds. Optimistic people are positive and have a amazing attitudes about life. Ralph Waldo Emerson introduced and created a more in depth  understanding of this concept. “Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.” is a quote that Ralph Waldo Emerson had once said. He was a very optimistic person and he went everyday of his life treating like it was the best day he would ever have. In this quote he is telling other people to engrave it into your mind to try and make everyday the best day ever.  He treats everything he ever does like it is always possible and never impossible. He also doesn't let other people get in the way of that. Another amazing quote by our famous Thomas Edison was “Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try one more time.” In this quote Edison is trying tell people that everyone can give up, it is probably one of the easiest things to do for most people, but to have that feeling of giving up but not giving up is a whole different thing. It it is hard to keep yourself going and to push yourself to the very limit.

Self-Reliance: Self-Reliance means to trust in yourself and and your own power. It is better to rely on yourself and trust in your own ideas rather than anyone's else's. “Courage is the most important of all the virtues because without courage, you can't practice any other virtue consistently.” said Maya Angelou. To not have courage in yourself is a huge part of self-reliance. Not have confidence in yourself or in you ideas is a perfect example of not showing self-reliance. As I am watching the republican debate at my house I actually noticed some self-reliance in Carly Fiorina. “If you want something to get done, ask a women to do it” is what she had just said. This represents a lot of self-reliance because she believes in her power and she believes in herself. In order to be in that sort of position, to be president or a representative, at any time you have to have self-reliance and believe in yourself.  Emerson proves this by saying “Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.” This means to trust yourself and maybe some other people will just so happen agree with you. You will never know until you trust in your own self and share to the world your ideas.  He also wrote a passage about self-reliance, that is where I received the quote from.

Individualism: Individualism  means to basically be self-reliant. You become very used to being independent and many believe that individualism open the door to have freedom of action. Ralph Waldo Emerson shows this a lot as well. He demonstrates this through this quote “Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” Emerson said this to tell people to not follow the footsteps that others have once taken, but to make new ones and guide people in the direction that you want to go.

Intuition: Intuition means to understand something immediately and be able to look beyond that as well. Usually people just stick to what they know and people don't wish to dive deeper in to what could not only be something new to you, but many people. If Thomas Edison would have never found his intuition we would have never had a light bulb, or at least we wouldn't have one until someone else found that intuition. Albert Einstein once said, "The only real valuable thing is intuition." In all of the people I have heard if Albert Einstein had the most intuition ever. He was not the brightest kid ever, but eventually he moved past that and realized that he can really do great things for the world. He also trusted his gut because that is what his gut told him that he could do. It takes a long time for people to be able to trust themselves though and listen to what there gut is telling them whether it is for the good or the bad.

Post I: Transcendentalism Overview

What is transcendentalism? At first I didn't know what it meant either. Then as the classes went on and I was given many examples to understand it more. The topic of Transcendentalism became easy to follow as I kept learning more about it. Transcendentalism in my own words means to break free from society's expectations and constrains, and follow your own well being. You are becoming what you want to be without the influence of society. You are becoming self reliant and independent. This all started during the nineteenth century, when the transcendentalism era had begun.  During this era many people would go against spirituality and intellectualism. Transcendentalism is interpreted in many ways. Especially throughout Ralph Waldo Emerson's Nature. Emerson was a man that ended to get away from society and he wanted to get something else out of life.

 “It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.” (Emerson). This quote is stating very good example of what transcendentalism is. It is very easy to live in a world as the same as all the other people in it. The real challenge is being different, doing something that makes you just on inch out of that box of ordinary.

  As Molly Vonk once said “For who can we be, but ourselves.”  She was trying to get the message out to the world, why be someone else when you can be yourself. Being your self in the best you can be and everyone should be happy with them self. You really cant change who you are are. When people try to change themselves, they are pretending.

 “Very early, I knew that the only object in life was to grow.” said Margret Fuller. She was determined to live life how she wanted and in a way that would allow her to grow as a person. She was in charge of the way she grew, and she wanted to make sure that it was in a good way.