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"Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind"

Emerson is showing the readers the meaning of self reliance, and how difficult it is to put into action.

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"There is no object so foul that intense light will not make beautiful"

By writing how strong nature is, Emerson is showcasing the complexity of nature.

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"But if a man would be alone, let him look at the stars."

Emerson lays down the ease of individuality by getting rid of concerns of loneliness, nature can fill the hearts of humans, enough so to even be considered company.

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"What would become of us if we walked only in a garden or a mall?"

Thoreau is informing the readers of the importance of individualism and learning who you are.

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"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to from only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived."

Thoreau is preaching a return to the arms of mother nature so that humans can truly discover themselves.

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https://docs.google.com/document/d/136z2hKyZ5h4piKT82fSCh99n8dRq6tvg0MOZu1ybXec/edit?usp=sharing

Transcendentalism as a whole preaches that the best way to form a perfect society is to use nature as the supreme teacher, to absorb all that it means to tell, to be more like it in individualism and self-reliance, abandoning the archaic social structures that do nothing but hold humans back from the potential they have.

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Todd's standing on his desk and the subsequent rallying around the action summarize the main theme of the film, and is thus the most striking element of the film, the theme being that living meaningfully won't always be looked upon positively by society, but liberating yourself is the part that matters.

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The film Dead Poets society allows the viewer to grasp what can be achieved by truly striving for a transcendental lifestyle. True liberation and happiness can be reached, but also the utmost of rejections can occur. A transcendental lifestyle is frowned upon as showed by the reactions to Mr. Keating's teaching methods and Neil's father as a whole, but the boys still find a way to free themselves and show the viewers that a free life is possible.

"Oh me! Oh life!" plays into the reader's doubts and unhappiness surrounding life. The poem by Walt Whitman takes a turn in the last stanza to go against the previous long winded rant, saying that life is worth living merely for the experience of it. If a person is truly able to experience life, they can overcome all the negatives associated with it.

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8. Challenges to Living Transcendentally in the Modern World 

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8. Challenges to Living Transcendentally in the Modern World 

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The destruction of the very natural spaces where people are mostly able to transcend poses a major threat to the validity of the transcendental tenets.

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My poem was inspired by the format and juxtaposition present in Jennifer Height's poem, "Not Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening", I used that format to tell a tale of modern day individualism and to take a close look at what true success really is. The poem is about a businessman who, while wandering the streets, spots a wise looking homeless man, and after saving him from an attacker has an epiphany that makes him question his entire being. The poem means to convey a message of class solidarity, question the excesses of the upper middle class, and show common goodness in the hearts of all.

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The sun greedily pounded on my businessman hat, after all,

I had nothing to hide. Across the looming presence of the chariots

of the wealthy, I eyed an aged man. You’d think a wise poet, but

no, a destitute vagabond. Disheveled as he appeared, his eyes were healthy. They appeared to sparkle like the wistful flirting

of fireflies. Suddenly, they crystallized. The city holds many dark promises. The man knew it's peculiarities, the ominous sense of danger. He, as a nomad, knew the secrets to the city’s veil of

flawlessness.

With no bed to head to, he had no reason to repel the attacker.

He was leading a passionate life without purpose, an outcast.

The cloud of greed in my mind dissipated. By others, we had

been deemed different. Yet, our differences were insignificant,

our spiritual longing, tethered us together like a golden string.

I discovered a wellspring of energy within me as I risked my

life. In between my breaths and strides, I lost myself. By the

time I had struck the attacker I was already liberated. With the

soft thud of my case against the attacker’s head. I discovered my

new self. As my hat flew off, locks of hair and beads of sweat flew out.

The new reality I’d discovered was as liberating as it was dark. No one had forced this realization upon me. I discovered it myself, as I had to discover the rest of life as well. The rest of the stairwell of life could not remain untraveled. The stairwell of life, if explored by nobody else, might as well be explored by me.

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Living a simpler life doesn't entail a monastic lifestyle, it can be as easy as finding your own food, like with this fig tree (ignore the fact that the figs are dead).

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Seeking truth in life often requires one to question even the simplest of things, a flower, a gust of air, even the dirt beneath their feet.

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Returning to nature is a tenet of transcendentalism , helping one connect to previous, simpler times. (aka absolute madman literally climbs a tree for a grade).

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In this world, a person can never be certain of what they are able to leave behind. Nearly every human is born as merely a background dancer in the larger, grand performance of life, and there’s very little that can change that, however, I don’t mind wasting any and all potential that I have in life, just to make the ones I love happy. The world is full of people that will step on others just to get ahead, I yearn to be the one that looks down on the fallen and tells them that everything will be alright. By helping even a single person who is beaten down or lost, dropping even the slightest bit of color into their lives, I can truly become a star and brighten up the world, enough so that even the blind can see the smiles of those I’ve left behind.

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The hashtag means "land of the white cannibals" in Cajun French, it's a rejection of the traditional establishment of old, white men stabbing each other in the back, that being the land of the white cannibals that's being referred to.

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The Dead Kennedys were a hardcore punk group formed in California that defined the 80's punk scene. The punk scene at the time could be seen as carrying on transcendental will due to one of it's main tenets being the rejection of the traditional establishment. In the song "Kill The Poor", the Dead Kennedys satirize just how far the rich would go to protect and increase their wealth, stating that if a hypothetical nuke was created that could wipe out all poor people, they'd immediately use it; showing the band's disdain and rejection of the upper echelons of society.