“Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity” (Thoreau, Walden, 253). Simplicity is one of the most basic ideals of transcendentalism. Thoreau saw that most lives were becoming consumed in the mindless details of the modern world. In order to defeat this, he decided he had to leave everything behind that was not absolutely necessary. When Thoreau moved to Walden Pond, it was to connect with nature, rely on his own self, but mostly to simplify all that he did not need to have. Thoreau despised how much was being wasted on meaningless specifics. “Our life is frittered

As the many concepts of transcendentalism are culminated and brought down to one main point, it is to transcend yourself, your society, your doubts, and your wants, while finding your own way to achieve it. Three of the main concepts that this theory is supported by are simplicity, letting go of what is not absolutely necessary to survive; societal conformity, leaving behind all that you are told to do although there is no application to your own beliefs; and self-reliance, trusting your own instincts, intuitions, and thoughts. Emerson and Thoreau were very innovative men. They decided they did not like the way that Americans were living, and they did something about it. They spoke their mind, put out another idea, and trusted themselves. They disregarded what people said, they asked no one to follow them, and they left everyone to find their own way. They, finally, let everything they did not need go, and they set an example of doing what a person needed to do, and nothing more. They knew the reality of America. For, as Emerson said, “If a plant cannot live according to his nature, it dies; and so a man” (Emerson, Civil Disobedience, 260).

“If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps, it is because he hears a different drummer” (Thoreau as cited in Lawrence & Lee, v). The path to transcendentalism is meant to be different for every being that travels it. It is supposed to be what fits that beings experiences, ideas, beliefs, truths, and ideals. This makes conformity unacceptable. When a person conforms to their society, they are disregarding what they believe or what they need to do to survive. Society, according to Emerson, “is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members” (Self-Reliance, 247). Societal conformity is the ultimate antagonist of transcendentalism. The transcendentalist movement paid most of its efforts to the ca

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