Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau had a conflicting view on the idea of American colleges. Emerson is widely regarded as one of America's most important authors, philosophers, and thinkers. ... Thoreau is also considered one of the most influential figures in American thought and literature. As a true individualist, he fought for the human spirit, and against materialism and social conformity. ... Emerson's, "American Scholar" was an address to the Phi Beta Kappa Society at Cambridge in 1837. ...

• Word Count: 1130
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

To analyze and better understand his prose, it is necessary to be acquainted with some key points in Thoreau's life and the political, social, economic, and environmental atmosphere of 19th century antebellum America. America was in a period of major change in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. ... "Manifest Destiny" accelerated westward migration as well as dissent within the American government and between itself and its citizens. ... A major tenant of the movement was, "They believed in something that transcended the limits of sensory experience – in other w...

• Word Count: 2159
• Approx Pages: 9
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

Through these conflicting issues, the links between American writers Lewis and Thoreau are even clearer. ... Lewis's character of George Babbitt and Henry David Thoreau actually represent opposite extremes of an individual living in American society. ... Many people in America conform to the government's standards, and follow the rules that are imposed upon them even if they believe that it is wrong. ... Due to Babbitt's ardency to become the ideal citizen, he engages in the campaigning for Lucas Prout over the idealistic Seneca Doane, and conforms to the American view that a...

• Word Count: 3576
• Approx Pages: 14
• Grade Level: High School

Johnson locates a more ecologically minded Thoreau only when the naturalist can move beyond Emersonian metaphor in his later work, and therefore initiate (along with Susan Fennimore Cooper) an empirical "counteraesthetics" to the dominant paradigm in American environmental aesthetics codified in Emerson's line from his 1836 Nature: "The world is emblematic. ...

• Word Count: 9971
• Approx Pages: 40
• Grade Level: Undergraduate