1. 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.

2. 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

3. 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.

5. • 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.

7. 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

8. Famous Transcendentalists
• Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Emily Dickinson
• Henry David Thoreau
• Walt Whitman

9. How can we relate??
Dead Poets Society
Set 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?

10. 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

11. “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.

12. 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?

13. EXTENDED METAPHOR MEANING
Captain President Lincoln
Ship
Storm
Arrival of ship at port

14. Robert Herrick
“To the Virgins…” (1648)
Stanza 1
Metaphor: “rosebuds” = ?
Stanza 2
Rising and setting sun reinforces what idea?
Stanza 3
“That age is best when is the first…” meaning?
Stanza 4
Last piece of advice for the young??

16. In what ways did Chris
In what ways did Chris
McCandless emulate the
McCandless emulate the
Transcendentalist ideals??
Transcendentalist ideals??

17. 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

18. Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Born in Boston
1803
• Entered Harvard
at age 14
• First book,
Nature,
published 1836
• Great emphasis
on self.

19. From Nature (1836)
“…Let us demand our own works and laws and
“…Let us demand our own works and laws and
worship...”
worship...”
“In the woods is perpetual youth… In the woods
“In the woods is perpetual youth… In the woods
we return to reason and faith…”
we return to reason and faith…”
“…Standing on the bare
“…Standing on the bare
ground… all egotism
ground… all egotism
vanishes. II become a
vanishes. become a
transparent eyeball. II am
transparent eyeball. am
nothing. II see all.”
nothing. see all.”

20. 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…”
“…non but he knows
“…non but he knows
what that is which he
what that is which he “Trust thyself…”
“Trust thyself…” “What II must do
can do, not does he
can do, not does he “What must do
know until he has
know until he has
tried.”
tried.”
is
is
all that
all that
“…to be great is to be
concerns me,
concerns me,
“…to be great is to be
misunderstood”
misunderstood” not what
not what
people think…”
people think…”

21. 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?

23. 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

25. “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.”

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

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

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

31. Rubric
2. Quality of points
1. Number of comments no comments=0 points _____
No comments=0 points______ just repeats others’ ideas=5
1 comment= 5 points ______ points_____
2 comments=8 points ______ expresses original ideas=10
3 comments=12 points______ points_____
4 or more comments =15 original, deep comments, new
points______ ideas=15 points_____
3. References to text/movie
no references=0 points_______
1-2 references=5 points______
3 references=10 points ______
4 or more references=15 points_____

32. Seminar Reflection
Answer 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?