Ralph Waldo Emerson, a great writer and man, was born in Boston, Massachusetts on May twenty fifth eighteen hundred and three. He would come to represent only a minority of Americans in his lifetime but by end would be considered "America's" transcendentalist. Emerson's father, a Boston minister, died when Ralph was at the young age of eight years old. Soon after that Emerson was sent to Boston Latin School so he could receive the best basic schooling of his time. At the young age of fourteen Emerson enrolled in College a

Emerson concludes that the power to control the positive parts or sunny days, resides inside man not nature. Nature is suspicious and wears different masks. " The same scene which yesterday breathed perfume and glittered as for the frolic of the nymphs, is overspread with melancholy today." (Emerson, Nature) Emerson states, basically saying that nature always is unpredictable and what happens today will be different tomorrow. Emerson believed it is man who controls what face or mask nature will wear, nothing else. Even if the weather outside is nasty and stormy, we choose how our day will go.

Kenneth Burke believes that Nature, in Emerson's Essay, is the supernatural or spiritual life, and is on a higher plain. For example, Burke says " It treats society in terms for Nature-and it treats Nature in terms of the Supernatural " (Burke, 75). Which seems to me to be quite obvious, seeing how Emerson relates the stars to Heaven or the afterlife. In Burke's critical response he feels society takes the place of nature and nature become the heavens. Burke refers to Emerson as to having a revealing style in his material calling it apocalyptic. That can be found when Emerson reveals sights, sounds, tastes and, smells, in his work. Burke also believes Emerson uses bridges to connect two different words to convey one message.

Following his graduation from Harvard, he taught at the school his brother attended, and then moved towards the ministry. After his studies at the Harvard Divinity School, he began his start as a Unitarian minister, then was chosen chaplain of the Massachusetts Senate and elected to Boston School Committee. As Emerson became older, he fell in love with a girl from New Hampshire, Ellen Tucker. Soon after he was married but she died a year and a half later. Five years later he married Lydia Jackson, and had four children. Emerson resigned as pastor, no longer believing in celebrating Holy Communion, and saved enough to take a ten-month tour of Europe.

In his critical essay of Nature, Orestes Augustus Brownson finds it strange that Emerson's has so much love and respect for nature and strong belief in God, but constantly presents things in the physical world rather than spiritual saying " he seems to doubt the existence of the external world except as a picture which God stamps on the mind"(Brownson, 17) The only existence of the heavens is the image of God rather than the surroundings. Though Emerson has a unique style of getting to the truth, he still somehow ends up there. Orestes goes on to conclude that Emerson's work should be admired as a piece of art.

George Santayana believes that Emerson is constantly trying to awaken the reader with some kind of spiritual insight to express his opinions in his work. He says it was Emerson's job to be expressive in religion more than philosophy because that is where his background was. He states, " The romantic philosophers attributed the spirit of man the omnipotence which had belong to God." (Santayana, 33) Santayana thinks that Emerson began to think of new ideas, so he was able to replace his old ones. If this were true, it would be easy to see why Emerson was one of America's g

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Approximate Word count = 2137
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)