The Grapes of Wrath and Walden's Transcendental Wisdom
As readers it is our opportunity to compare and contrast the transcendental aspect prevalent in both Henry David Thoreau's Walden and John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath. Both books are fine examples of American literature at its greatest. They are also excellent examples of the Transcendental Philosophy that was championed by authors during their time. Though written roughly one hundred years apart, they both carried the voice of nature that rang loud and clear on the American landscape. Transcendentalism places its utmost respect in the intuitive knowledge man gleans from nature. Nature transcends the limits of human sense experience and teaches us the foundation of moral truths. Both authors relied on the symbiotic relationship between man and nature to connect the reader with the Transcendental concept of "oversoul"- a state of unity in which every man's particular being is contained and made one with all others. When Walden was written America was a new turf, a new vast piece of land that had not been altered by the human hand (the Native Americans didn't count because they had always been too respectful of it to leave much of an impact). Transcendentalism purported the philosophy that God was nature. Therefore, in America,
His protagonists, the Joads, were of the land and part of the land for as far back as they could remember. They began to loose their identity and their souls when they were forced to mortgage the property. Slowly but surely the banks increasingly owned their soil and their souls. Voluntarily robbed of Nature's birthright, they sought Her salvation. Their big dream was to move to California where they could become one with the land again, where they could have a little home surrounded by trees that, like a scene from the Bible, spilled their abundance on them. it would be easiest for transcendental believers to find a source and reference for their beliefs. Here nature was still fresh. Living in England one knows that every foot of land has a hundred pages of stories that goes with it. In America the writer had no limitations or fears of being repetitive. Open land and ample wealth led to a demand for printing presses, and American writers prospered. This demand was a result of eager new minds searching for new sources of knowledge. Emerson (the father of transcendentalism in America, and Thoreau's mentor) professed the concept of "oversoul". By this he meant that one level of consciousness connects all inhabitants of earth, and that the human challenge was to decipher this conundrum and find out where he belonged. Examples from Walden sum up Thoreau's view on nature, and man's transcendental dependency on it. In The Grapes of Wrath Steinbeck is less obviously concerned with the philosophical issues of Transcendentalism, but examples that reinforce the transcendental view point of man's spiritual dependency on nat
Some common words found in the essay are:
Grapes Wrath, Wrath Steinbeck, Transcendental Philosophy, Living England, Native Americans, America Thoreau's, Examples Walden, , wisdom nature, grapes wrath, examples transcendental, examples transcendental philosophy, transcendental philosophy,
Approximate Word count = 1097
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
|
