Transcendentalism

While there are some elements of transcendentalism that I do agree with, I wouldn’t call myself a transcendentalist. I agree that self-reliance can be a good thing and that you can determine who and what you are by yourself, but I don’t agree that man is inherently good or that it is always best not to follow examples set by others or by history.

Being self-reliant is generally a good thing. If you can’t get by without constant support and can’t get along by yourself or come up with ideas on your own, you’re probably going to have problems in life. You have to have some degree of self-reliance to be able to find out who you are as a person and succeed in life. On the other hand, I don’t agree with the transcendentalist view that all people are inherently good. I’ve had enough personal experiences and know enough about history and current events to realize that this isn’t true. If people were inherently good, they wouldn’t have committed the atrocities that we know they have.

I also don’t believe that it is always best to ignore the precedents and examples set by others and by history. While going your own way and being original is a good thing, there is so much that can be learned and that can benefit you if you do learn from others and from history. When we were talking about this in class, I instantly thought of the quote, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” I believe this to be true, and if someone were to ignore history and choose to go their own way like transcendentalists believe you should, there is always the possibility that what they come up with will cause a repeat of a terrible event in history.

Map Analysis

This map of Virginia, Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas is written in Latin. It seems to fairly accurate when compared to current maps. There are a fair amount of physical land features shown on this map. There are hills, mountains, rivers, forests, and lakes. The British and Spanish territories are marked by the countries respective coat of arms. The title of the map, which is located in the “western” side of the map, has drawings of the native people. These provide an idea of what they look like; the place on the map where they are located also shows where they predominantly now exist, west of European territories and settlements.

This map shows the increasing control and influence Europeans have over the Eastern coast of what will become the United States. There are still native names for some locations and the natives drawn on the map indicate that they are still there, but they are in the west. The eastern side of the map has predominantly European names and has signs of European control such as sailing ships. It also has angels on the east side of the map, possibly implying that the Europeans have God on their side. The natives are also dressed in a way that would be considered “primitive” by Europeans, which is part of the “characterization of Native Americans as uncivil, “savage,” “wild beasts...” This made it more acceptable for the Europeans to say that they should expand further west into native territory, to bring God and civilization to the “savage” natives.

http://www.libs.uga.edu/darchive/hargrett/maps/1640b55.jpg