AP Language: Romanticism and Thoreau

  • American romanticism (1800-1860) stemmed from a desire to escape crowded cities and technology, and to be close to God in nature.

    • Promoted intuition, innocence, inspiration from nature, inner experience, and imagination.

    • Transcendentalist

  • Prominent romantic thinkers include Ralph Waldo Emerson, Alcotts, Longfellow, Hawthorne, Cullen Bryant, and Thoreau.

  • Thoreau was born in Concord, MA, and loved the wilderness his entire life.

    • His father made pencils.

    • His mother took in boarders, one of whom was Emerson’s sister-in-law (this is how they met).

    • He went to Harvard in 1833 and was known for being a rebel, as was shown when he would wear a green coat to the chapel because “the rules required black.”

      • He was a non-conformist.

    • He was a teacher but refused to whip children to discipline them.

      • Began a school in 1838 with his brother, John.

  • Thoreau and his brother both fell in love with the same woman—both were rejected.

    • John became sick and died—HDT closed the school.

  • Emerson inspired Thoreau to go on an “inward journey.”

    • Emerson offered him use of some of his land near Walden Pond.

      • Thoreau left for the pond on July 4th and stayed there for two years.

  • The Walden Years was Thoreau’s experiment that was an attempt to rediscover the grandeur of a simple life close to nature.

    • He thought of himself as a hero for doing this.

    • He felt that townspeople were so caught up in making a living that they had become one-dimensional.

    • Thoreau wanted to show people that the vital facts of life lay in their own backyards

  • Thoreau wrote a book called Walden

    • Walden is one of the most famous works ever produced in America

      • He looked to nature for writing style rather than imitating styles of the past.

  • While living at Walden Pond, Thoreau wanted to protest the Mexican War.

    • He refused to pay his poll tax and spent a night in jail as a result

  • While at the pond again in 1851, Thoreau would help fugitive slaves escape to Canada.

  • Thoreau moved back to town in 1847 and began writing Walden and “Resistance to Civil Government”

    • “Resistance” helped inspire Gandhi and MLK

    • Moved back with his parents in 1848

    • Took on odd jobs and became a record keeper for the town

    • In 1860, he caught a cold that turned out to be Tuberculosis

  • Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience is intended to persuade Americans to follow their conscience and to rebel against injustice.

    • Paradox: a contradiction that reveals a truth

      • Ex: Government is best that governs least

    • Logos, ethos, pathos