Transcendentalism in Thoreau Transcendentalism is any system of philosophy emphasizing the intuitive and spiritual above the empirical and material. Transcendentalism is present throughout Henry David Thoreau’s journal Walden. Thoreau expresses three main points of transcendentalism: simplicity, getting back to nature, and taking only what on needs. “Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand.” Here Thoreau explains his idea of simplicity in …showed first 75 words of 457 total…

…showed last 75 words of 457 total…by using only what he needs he frees up most of his time to do more important things. Thoreau's theories in Walden (simplicity, living in nature, and taking only what is needed) express a transcendentalist point of view from the author. The three theories are linked to transcendentalism in a way of being higher than that of a man of society. Without Thoreau’s theories to challenge the societal mind, where would literature be today?