Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog, by Caspar David Friedrich (1818)

1.Write down what you see– just general notes about the visual

2. Now focus on the detail– what seems to be the most important

parts? Write them down.3.Consider the title– how is the artist’s chosen title reflected in

the image?4.Use your gathered evidence

now to consider any interrelationships– what do the

title/details/parts have to do with one another?

5.Conclusion—summarize what you think the message of the painting is in 1-2 sentences.

American Transcendentalism(1830s—1860s)

“ It was a high counsel that I once heard given to a young person, always do what you are afraid to do.”

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Transcendentalism

• A literary movement in the 1830s that established a clear “American voice”

• Emerson first expressed his philosophy in his essay “Nature”

• A belief in a higher reality than that achieved by human reasoning.

• Suggests that every individual is capable of discovering this higher truth through intuition.

• Unlike Puritans, they saw humans and nature as possessing an innate goodness.

“In the faces of men and women, I see God”

-Walt Whitman

• Opposed strict ritualism and dogma of established religion.

Transcendentalist Beliefs:

• Believed in living close to nature/importance of nature. Nature is the source of truth and inspiration, and every man and woman could “transcend” the material world.

• Taught the dignity of manual labor• Advocated self-trust/ confidence• Valued individuality/non-conformity/free

thought• Advocated self-reliance/ simplicity• Material success = source of corruption

Famous Transcendentalists

• Ralph Waldo Emerson• Emily Dickinson• Henry David Thoreau• Walt Whitman

How can we relate??Dead Poets SocietySet in 1950s, in an all-boys boarding school

What was life like in the 50s? What was regarded as most important in that time?

How do the ideas/poems in the film relate to Transcendentalism?

What can we learn from it all about ourselves?

Walt Whitman(1819—1892)

• “Roughneck genius” inspired by nature

• Book of poems Leaves of Grass = major turning point in American literature– Discarded traditional form &

patterns– “Father of Free Verse” (and

“free” in content)– Language vivid and exciting

“O Captain, My Captain!”Extended Metaphor: a figure of speech that

compares two people, places or things at some length and in several ways (without using the words like or as).

Elegy: a poem of serious reflection, typically a lament for the dead.

1. What is the “fearful trip”? (Think specifically about American history)

2. What is the extended metaphor? What does it stand for?

Themes:--LOYALTY-Select words in poem that imply the speaker’s

loyalty to the Captain.--COMING OF AGE-The speaker expresses his shock/difficulty

expressing shock in numerous ways. Particularly:

“But O heart! heart! heart!”-meaning? reiterating what?

“…fallen cold and dead.”-why repetition of that phrase?

--DEATH-What words/phrases imply that the Captain’s

death was unjust?-What will the speaker do now that his Captain is

dead?

EXTENDED METAPHOR MEANING

Captain President Lincoln

Ship

Storm

Arrival of ship at port

Robert Herrick“To the Virgins…” (1648)

Stanza 1Metaphor: “rosebuds” = ?Stanza 2Rising and setting sun reinforces what idea?Stanza 3“That age is best when is the first…” meaning?Stanza 4Last piece of advice for the young??

In what ways did Chris McCandless emulate the

Transcendentalist ideals??

In what ways did Chris McCandless emulate the

Transcendentalist ideals??

Two years he walks the earth.No phone, no pool, no pets, no cigarettes. Ultimate freedom. An extremist. An aesthetic voyager whose home is the road.

Escaped from Atlanta. Thou shalt not return, 'cause "the West is the best." And now after two rambling years comes the final

and greatest adventure. The climactic battle to kill the false being within and victoriously conclude the spiritual

pilgrimage. Ten days and nights of freight trains and hitchhiking bring him to the Great White North. No longer to be poisoned by civilization he flees, and walks alone upon the

land to become lost in the wild.— Chris “Alex” McCandless

May 1992

Ralph Waldo Emerson• Born in Boston

1803• Entered Harvard

at age 14• First book,

Nature, published 1836

• Great emphasis on self.

From Nature (1836)

“In the woods is perpetual youth… In the woods we return to reason and faith…”“In the woods is perpetual youth… In the woods we return to reason and faith…”

“…Standing on the bare ground… all egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eyeball. I am nothing. I see all.”

“…Standing on the bare ground… all egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eyeball. I am nothing. I see all.”

“…Let us demand our own works and laws and worship...”“…Let us demand our own works and laws and worship...”

From “Self-Reliance” (1841)“There is a time in every man’s education when

he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation in suicide…”

“Trust thyself…”“Trust thyself…” “What I must do is

all that concerns me,

not what people think…”

“What I must do is

all that concerns me,

not what people think…”

“…to be great is to be misunderstood”

“…to be great is to be misunderstood”

“…non but he knows what that is which he can do, not does he know until he has

tried.”

“…non but he knows what that is which he can do, not does he know until he has

tried.”

Essential Questions…

How would you summarize the central tenants of Emerson’s work?

Why do you think it’s considered one of the founding texts of the Transcendentalist ideal? What Transcendentalist traits does it have?

Into the Wild: Henry David Thoreau

• Thoreau began “essential” living• Built a cabin on land owned to Emerson in

Concord, Mass. near Walden Pond• Lived alone there for two years studying nature and seeking truth within himself

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

“I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life.”

Socratic Seminars

• Socrates believed that enabling students to think for themselves was more important than filling their heads with “right answers.”

• Participants seek deeper understanding of complex ideas through dialogue, rather than by memorizing bits of information.

Rubric 1. Number of commentsNo comments=0 points______1 comment= 5 points ______2 comments=8 points ______3 comments=12 points______4 or more comments =15 points______

2. Quality of pointsno comments=0 points _____just repeats others’ ideas=5 points_____expresses original ideas=10 points_____original, deep comments, new ideas=15 points_____

3. References to text/movieno references=0 points_______1-2 references=5 points______3 references=10 points ______4 or more references=15 points_____

Seminar ReflectionAnswer the following questions in complete sentences

1. One new idea I hadn’t thought of before/I liked a lot was…

2. One question I still have is…3. How well do you think the class as a whole

participated? Why?4. How well do you think you participated?

Why?