Puritans were very religiously based. Everything in their life had God infused in it. Their education system revolved around God, children were taught from a young age with the New England Primer. Preaching and living their religious life was very important to them, Puritans wanted to colonize somewhere they can have religious freedom. Their whole lives were devoted to living like Christ, and spreading the word of God.

American rationalism valued reason and logic. It's believed that human beings have basic instincts, that they were born with, before they experience the world. Rationalists also believe that there are truths that we can work out in the world. They also believe that there are some truths that cannot be derived from just experience. Religion was not focused on in rationalism, and their literature was about government and science.

Romanticism valued literacy, art, and the idealist philosophy. They looked to nature to find the truths behind simple concepts. They look to find the truth in different settings. Romantics strongly valued being self reliant, or self independence. They believed in looking to themselves for the answer because they believed that the answers were always there, you just have to look for a deeper meaning in things in order to find them. They weren't a part of society in a way, because their ideas were misunderstood due to preset morals and ethics.

Transcendentalism was mainly based around intuition and imagination. Transcendentalists valued the belief of individualism, they thought that society and its organized parties (religious and political) ruined those beliefs. They believed that human beings have knowledge about the world and themselves that goes beyond the five senses.

The Manifest Destiny was a belief in the United States that the European settlers was destined to expand American territory throughout the continent. Also to remake the westward side of the continent to make it more successful. Democrats mostly favored these ideas, and the federal government funded it. This movement was driven by Religion. People believed that it was their duty from God to pursue rebuilding the West, as well as reinforcing the ideologies from the Bill of Rights.

Not only were Romanticism and Transcendentalism alike in many of the same ways, but they also shaped America to be what it is today in some of the same ways. They both have the same views on spirituality and staying true to one's self. They also both valued nature, and looking to nature to find deeper meanings. People in America responded very positively to the ideologies of both of these movements. 

Although as far as differences, Romanticism was a literary and artistic movement that caused many poets and authors to inspire the citizens all across America. "Poetry was considered the highest embodiment of the Romantic imagination" (Arpin). For example, Edgar Allen Poe wrote a poem named "Eldorado" which was later extremely famous due to the fact that it summarized Romantic ideologies like the concept of a Hero. "The typical hero of American Romantic fiction, on the other hand, was youthful, innocent, intuitive, and close to nature." (Arpin). This concept appealed to people in America, and in "Eldorado" it says, "Gaily bedight, A gallant knight, In sunshine and in shadow... This knight so bold, And o'er his heart a shadow" (Poe). This is showing traits of a strong, brave, and bold man that citizens were able to look up to.

Transcendentalism differed from Romanticism in the way that transcendentalists believed that God was still the center of the universe. Puritanism contributed to these beliefs in the way that Transcendentalists' still based their lives around God. Although people still wanted more knowledge, because they believed that it was power. They supported the idea that the universe and self transcends the normal world. Since poetry was valued highly, people listened to the lessons given by literacy. For example "Self- Reliance" was written by Ralph Waldo Emerson to inform the readers that to be great one needs to take risks and be different even at expense of being misunderstood. He writes, " We but half express ourselves, and are ashamed of that divine idea which each of represents" (Emerson). One shouldn't follow the majority, people need to stand out by expressing the ideas that one's heart tells them to express. It is unwise to conform to social norms out of fear of perception. People learned from the words of well respected poets, and changed their ethics, morals, and norms in order to fit to new ideologies.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo. “Self-Reliance.” Amy Fleming. Austin, Texas: A Harcourt Education Company, 2003. 77-78. Print.

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. “The Minister’s Black Veil” Amy Fleming. A Parable. Austin, Texas: A Harcourt Education Company, 2003. 67-72. Print.