With the end of the Civil War in America came the enormous task of inventing a national identity. America wanted to break its European ties and forge a new voice through literature, as it is through speech that a nation expresses itself. However, although the literature of the period was American in content, its form was European. Cultural distinction was necessary to elevate America's status in the world, and this could be achieved by taking America's entirely individual landscape into account, using it as a creative force that would affect how people Americans thought and wrote. Emerson and Thoreau saw forming an identity as primarily about changing one's relationship to nature, and through the use of philosophical prose, they believed they could influence the creation of an entirely individual nation. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essayEmerson wanted to expand his transcendental idea of ​​the world by writing about the timeless ideas of nature, the universe, and being human, mixed with specific ideas. historical moments, the state of society and its relationship with the individual. Emerson believed that by reaffirming the idea of ​​mind, it would be possible to discover a realm of experience beyond the reach of conventional thought. The material nature of society had reduced life to sensual experience, and Emerson wanted to seek the laws that governed the senses, that which is not immediately visible, the higher laws that govern nature. To do this, it was necessary to look within the life of the mind and soul, and find the knowledge that only comes with intuition and concepts working together. Looking beyond what is understood, Emerson wanted to take the material life, that of an honest worker, and make it expressive of a higher being, bringing spirituality to everyday life. He believed that the unadorned life of the American was more expressive of a higher truth and that a reformation of conscience would restore the harmony of language and nature that society had worn out. Transcendentalist thought believes that all nature has moral meaning and that the further humanity strays from nature, the greater the corruption of these moral meanings. To define the self and the nation in an original way, it was necessary to return to the origins of life, to the deepest past, to the truths that precede human history and to the foundations of human existence. If Americans could lose the appearances imposed by society, they could develop a unified vision of the world and restore in America the fundamental relationship with words. For Emerson's ideas to succeed, he had to assume that, faced with the facts, all Americans would desire to find an individual spirituality that would elevate the nature of their menial work and bring a higher truth to their daily lives. However, if all Americans were to follow Emerson's example, it would be necessary to retreat to rural areas for all of society to return to nature and, in doing so, bring down the industrial society that the America worked so hard to build. A society in motion, growing and constantly looking to the future needs a stable structure and a reliable workforce in all areas. It is all well and good to desire a more fulfilling life for one's countrymen, but if this can only be achieved by neglecting the country as a system, then the society that has given everyone the chance to find a truthsuperior could well collapse. . This idea also bases its success on the belief that human beings are by nature good and altruistic, and that they would reject material life in favor of a way of life that would bring them closer to nature and the universe, and on the fact that America is now the leading country in the world. The richest country and only superpower shows that it was a choice not everyone was willing to make. Thoreau took Emerson's thinking as the next logical step, believing that knowledge of America would come through knowledge of self. America was going through a massive period of industrialization and social unrest, with the abolition of slavery and social causes such as women's liberation. Thoreau believed that by transcending to a higher spiritual level of existence, Americans would lose the idea of ​​the selfish self and find a broader concept of form and truth. American philosophy has always been the idea of ​​writing yourself, of creating a social utopia that would resonate around the world. Thoreau also recognized that American identity depended on a sense of space and that by mapping the land and terrain and being in a constant state of transition and movement, Americans could only continue their search for ideal society. Believing that history and geography were useless for interpreting the world, he tried to encourage the philosophical idea that the world could be created by individuals through self-regulation. By exploring the self within and the universe beyond and removing the needs of the self, it would be possible to remove state structures and have a democracy of individuals. As history was open to manipulation, a truer discovery of the world could be found through the universal. force as recognized in nature and experienced through nature's constant present. Individuals could cultivate their sense of moral duty and thus discover the invisible law of conscience, superior to the law of the State. It is the idea that the law of consciousness of individuals was aligned with the law of nature, that nature and culture should be one, and that all cultivated laws are secondary. These ideas gave the individual a great deal of confidence and the possibility of their success depended on an interpretation of what the individual saw as the expression of a higher truth. It is based on the belief that all individuals, by nature, are honest and truthful, and above all moral. However, in placing such reliance on the individual, Thoreau presents the possibility, as his writings are open to interpretation, for individuals of an inherently selfish, greedy, or hateful nature to justify that nature because they sought and found their true nature, even though the morality found would be the antithesis of Thoreau's writings. When he speaks of the universal force recognized in nature, he sees America as a kind of universe, presenting a universal idea and way of life through which America could set an example to the rest of the world. Again, this is based on the assumption that when other countries around the world are presented with these ideas, they will follow suit. This ignores the possibility that this way of life will be rejected, and by being so arrogant about the success of this idea, they immediately exclude any country or civilization that does not wish to pursue a way of life in the American vein. The practical demands of society also precipitate the failure of Thoreau's teachings, for society would stand still if all Americans left their towns and jobs in search of their own Walden. America was founded not only by people wanting a better wayof life, but also by a selfish desire to improve their way of life. I'm not saying it's wrong for people to want to better themselves or their living conditions, but the idea of ​​forging a more prosperous and comfortable lifestyle is an innately selfish act. As society grows and develops successfully its inhabitants become more accustomed to the ease that an industrial, and now technological, age offers, and are therefore less willing to give up the material luxuries that society has provided them. The spiritual demands of the individual are forgotten as people become more obsessed with daily life and lose the idea of ​​a possible higher truth and natural law, due to more dominant cultural concerns such as putting food on the table and getting the bills paid. Philosophizing about the nature of life and about the mind, body and soul also requires a naturally curious nature and degree of intelligence, as well as a desire to become more spiritually aware, and if these are not not already present in the individual, it is all the more necessary. difficult to persuade such a person to make such a change in their lifestyle. The relationship of the State to the individual also impinges on the search for truth through spirituality, to the extent that it gives the individual another authority to respond to, and is all the more present as it governs the individual in a more visible way than that of the State. eternal laws of nature. Humanity's development and continued dependence on machines only compounds the loss of connection with nature. Nature is not respected in exchange for man-made objects that have become practical participants in the creation and growth of society. In the cities there are cultivated countrysides that are completely unnatural, a kind of man-made nature whose aim is to give the impression of a society in contact with nature and that even in very populated, there are places where man cannot develop. It must also be remembered that in trying to write the nation, Emerson and Thoreau looked at life in a completely idealistic way, an interesting idea, but totally implausible when considering the nature of man, that the story shows selfish and greedy. Edgar Allen Poe, however, believed that the truth of the self lay in the alienation of oneself, and that to be an American meant to be confined within oneself because there was no refined standard of living or established cultural tradition. Contrary to the beliefs of Emerson and Thoreau, Poe wanted to push emotional experience to its limits. He believed that art was confined to a pure product of the mind and that through its characters it could embrace the extremes of the psyche. He believed that literature, like the self and landscape of America, should be explored and developed into something entirely American. He did not believe in returning to nature because he was aware of the true nature of humanity. He wanted to encourage his readers to ask themselves whether they could trust what they saw, believing that the extreme conditions of the psyche were the truest form of experience, and that these would exceed the capacity of language to process the expression of these emotions, thus showing that language is only a form of experience. a form of communication and having less truth than Emerson or Thoreau might have you believe. He was, however, similar to his predecessors in that he believed in a complete retreat into the spirit to discover the truth of the self. The spiritual demands of the individual are neglected due to the practical demands of society, for although religion is an element 1998