The Divergence of
Transcendentalism in “Ktaadn”
Courltynd Vaughan
Professor Patterson-Martineau
April 8th 2017
Transcendentalism, a distinctly American social and literary philosophy, is the movement
of bringing society back to its simplistic, natural and direct beliefs that could nurture a healthy
society. Transcendentalism views nature as an essential template for humanity, where human
behavior, attitudes, and actions are guided by the natural world. A transcendentalist views
themselves as neighbors to, rather than, hunters of the natural world, and rely solely on the
environment for one’s necessities for survival. Operating from a perspective that society, from
the start, is a dissatisfaction in terms of policies and actions of the United States,
transcendentalism during the mid-nineteenth century focused on the treatment of Native
Americans, the war in Mexico, and the continuous and expansion of slavery (Russell, 2015).
Henry David Thoreau, Margaret Fuller and Ralph Waldo Emerson had been important
transcendentalists in the nineteenth century, and each of their works touch on the central
