Thursday, April 9, 2009
Transcendentalism
During camp at Turtle Island, Eustace Conway teaches his young students to cut off a lock of their hair whenever they cut a branch off a tree. In this way, Conway is spiritual. He believes living things should be respected, but he does not worship trees or revere deer. He is thankful for their existence, and in heightened moments he praises their existence, but he never prays to them. He prays to a god, but he is not particularly religious or devout. Conway is a practical man and seeks sense. Nature is both useful and beautiful to him, but he does not wallow in its poetry. Because he does not see nature as a divine being, Conway is not a transcendentalist. He is too rational to believe in transcendentalism’s romantic version of the woods. He does accept transcendentalism’s view that we should live in nature, but his drive to spread this message forces him to become an outgoing businessman, a role most transcendentalists would loathe.
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2 comments:
I think that you definitely get the parts of Eustace that are NOT transcendentalist, and I definitely agree with you that at the root of things, he is just too rational. Although judging by his many failed love affairs... maybe not. What I wonder is if he is with Emerson in thinking that the root of language and beauty is nature. I think that that idea would interest Eustace.
I would have to agree. I think there are many ways in which Eustace is not a Transcendentalist but there are also some ways he portray the idea exactly. He follows the generic and most basic idea of being a Transcendentalist simply by realizing the power of nature. I didnt think about or couldnt remember the bit about the lock of hair and the tree branch bit though so bonus points for you. yayy
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