Emerson

I looked up the definition for transcendentalism, “any system of philosophy, esp that of Kant, holding that the key to knowledge of the nature of reality lies in the critical examination of the processes of reason on which depends the nature of experience “ (Dictionary.com) I think that this is very related to the works of Emerson. I thought that the definition was going to through me off, but it just made me realize how closely related Emerson was to transcendentalism. Emerson was very big on experiences. He always thought that we should have as many experiences as possible in life, because we are lucky to be here. Like I said before, I think he was this way because he lost his wife at a young age, and it just made him realize that he should have a lot of experiences. We all are here for a reason, and he knew that and he was trying to let all of his readers know.

Emerson was not a big mourner, in fact it was one thing that he was almost against at most times. Emerson had been through a lot in his life that made him no want to mourn. His wife named Ellen died in 1831 at the age of nineteen. She was way to young to die. Five years after his wife died he lost his closest brother, Charles. (Edmundson). Emerson had cried many tears over this, and he finally just realized that life was too short to be doing that, and he decided that even though he loved those two he needed to move on. He had mourned so much, that he could not mourn the rest of his life. I think that he just wanted to teach others that before they had to go through it. He wanted others to know how lucky we are for being her

"Yet Emerson doesn't just preach against mourning. He offers a philosophy of aggressive perpetual motion by which we can throw off circumstances before they have become confining. This strategy of ceaseless self-creation, which, it should be added, is always accomplished through the systematic destruction of the existing self, is the subject of a remarkable passage from the essay "Compensation." (Edmundson). I agree with this statement in that Emerson did not preach against mourning like we some times think he did. He just offered his philosophy that after something happens we pretty much just need to forget about it before we become to confined in it. He was trying to say that we should know that it happened and think about it for a little bit, but then we have to let it go. If we do not let it go we get stuck with thinking about it all the time and it almost becomes a sickness. He wants us to stop before it gets that way. He had to learn the hard way with his mourning, and he does not want anyone else to have to go through that.

I think that Emerson has a lot of good to say, and if we would listen to him we could really learn a lot. I think that we mourn a little bit much too. I know that if something happened to someone I deeply loved I would mourn forever, though. I think that we should just know that God has a plan and that even though it is hard to accept it sometimes, he does.

"Emerson and the Work of Melancholia." Raritan (Spring 1987). Quoted as "Emerson and the Work of Melancholia" in Bloom, Harold, ed. Ralph Waldo Emerson, Updated Edition, Bloom's Modern Critical Views. New York: Chelsea House Publishing, 2006. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=1&iPin=MCVRWE007&SingleRecord=True (accessed November 11, 2010).