Visual Media

Analysis

Civil Disobedience is a core theme of Transcendentalism making this image a powerful representation of transcendentalistic ideals. Civil disobedience displays non conformity and self reliance making the change you want instead of waiting for the government to do something about it. All of those go hand in hand with transcendentalism. Thoreau and Emerson both display civil disobedience which would go on to inspire the civil rights movement as shown in the photo. Overall this image is able to show many different ways of transcendentalism and is able to capture many examples.

Analysis

This photo represents transcendentalism in many ways. The first connection we can make is the tree and the grass which represents nature which is a strong theme in transcendentalism. We can see a person sitting, relaxing and enjoying life by themself which can be a representation of self reliance. The person in the photo seems to not care about materialistic things and is instead taking time to connect with nature. Overall this photo has multiple representations of transcendentalism. As Emerson mentions in his excerpts about nature “The sun illuminates only the eye of the man, but shines into the eye and the heart of the child” (Emerson). This quote goes hand in hand with this image capturing the meaning of transcendentalism.