Brave and Transcendentalism

In the movie Brave, the Princess, Merida, is supposed to choose a suitor to marry. Merida had no intentions of getting married and decided to find a way to change her fate. She took matters into her own hands and went her own way. She faced many conflicts along the way but, Merida ended up changing her fate in the end.

“Some say our destiny is tied to the land, as much a part of us as we are of it…” (Merida)

This quote shows transcendentalism because it is showing how nature is such a huge part of our lives even if we don't always notice it.

"To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true to you in your private heart, is true for all men" (Emerson 183). This is saying that no one else's thoughts should influence your thoughts and you should be your own individual.



"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately"(Thoreau 204).

Brave shows idealism because realistically you can't just find a little magic blue thing and follow it to a hut in the woods where there is a witch who gives you magic to change your fate but this would be ideal for Merida.

Merida is a princess so she lives in a castle and she has a lot of material things which contradicts transcendentalism but she has to go into nature and become transcendental to over come the conflict in the movie.

Merida decided that taking her fate into her own hands was the most important thing to her and she did whatever she had to to be able to do this. She went out into nature with her mom and went on a crazy adventure so Merida can change her mom back from being a bear while also changing her fate without realizing it.

Post IV Civil Disobedience

The article Civil Disobedience talks about how some things are worth fighting for even if you are fighting against society or even the law A very famous act of Civil Disobedience was Mahatma Gandhi and the Salt March in India. Dr. Martin Luther King was greatly influenced by Mahatma Gandhi and his nonviolent civil disobedience in India. In The Salt March, Gandhi led thousands of Indians on a 250 mile walk which was a key factor in the fight for Indian independence. The march was aiming at the British salt tax and other things throughout India. The brutal strike back by British police on the peaceful protesters gained international media attention which only increased support for Indian independence and nonviolent protesting. Gandhi’s act of civil disobedience helped make India into what it is today and greatly impacted the lives of thousands of people simply because he believed it was the right thing to do and stood by his beliefs. He had no regard for whether or not society was going to agree with his position on the matter or if he was going to get in trouble with the law.

Post II Emerson

Emerson’s four main ideas were optimism, self-reliance, individualism, and intuition. These themes greatly influenced his own writing and Thoreau’s.

Optimism: “The voyage of the best ship is a zigzag line of a hundred tacks.” (Emerson)

In this quote Emerson is showing optimism because he is saying that the best voyage on a ship isn’t always the smoothest route much like how in life the best things don’t always come easy but they are worth it. Optimism helps people to always be looking forward at what is to come and not dwelling on the past.

Self-reliance: “You will always find those who think they know what is your duty better than you know it.”  

This quote shows why self-reliance is important because it is saying that there will always be people who think they know you more than you know yourself. It is important to not let other people decide your life for you no matter what they think they know about you because in the end you should choose for yourself.

Individualism: “Nothing can bring you peace but yourself.”

This quote shows how in the end, the only thing that can bring you peace is yourself and yourself alone. The only thing that matters is who you are and what you value without any influences from society. Society always tries to eliminate individualism which is why it is so important.

Intuition: “The civilized man has built a coach, but has lost the use of his feet.”

This quote shows how society can make people go against their intuition. It is saying that man has a coach but because of this he has lost the use of his feet. Intuition should be used as guidance for people but it can very easily be misguided and wrong choices can be made because of this.

Post III Thoreau

Thoreau became a believer of transcendentalism while following Emerson. In “Civil Disobedience” and “Walden”, Thoreau chooses to live with only the things in life that are absolutely necessary. “I went to 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 had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.” Thoreau says how he wanted to live simply and not discover when he dies that he never truly lived. He believed that to truly live, you have to live on your own with only basic necessities and without any societal impact. By doing this he believed he could find himself and make peace with himself. Emerson was a great role model for Thoreau and his actions.

Post I Transcendentalism Overview

Transcendentalism is a very large idealistic, philosophical, and social idea. Transcendentalism was Influenced by romanticism. It showed that nature and humanity were truly the world if you chose to live that way and rise above society and truly experience the world. Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau were very important figures in transcendentalism. Optimism, intuition, idealism, and individualism are the main ideas in transcendentalism. In Self Reliance, Emerson explains that individuals should live their life disregarding society and its influence. “Be yourself; no base imitator of another, but your best self. There is something which you can do better than another. Listen to the inward voice and bravely obey that. Do the things at which you are great, not what you were never made for.” (Emerson) In his writing Walden, Thoreau says “We need the tonic of wildness...At the same time that we are earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all things be mysterious and unexplorable, that land and sea be indefinitely wild, unsurveyed and unfathomed by us because unfathomable. We can never have enough of nature.” (Thoreau) Thoreau wanted to experience life when living off of nature alone. Both Emerson and Thoreau wanted to share with others how to truly experience life to the fullest.