Artifact 2: Shawn Olsen's "Unity and Harmony in Transcendentalism"

Dear group 1,

Immediately when I began reading Margaret Fuller's "Woman in the Nineteenth Century" I could see definite similarities to the works of both Emerson and Thoreau. Fuller creates a strong tone in her piece, almost like she is delivering a sermon. She urges all women to start acting like that are equal to men and to stop being subservient. One direct similarity I noticed was when she recommended self-reliance (737) for women with their relationships. Emerson had an essay titled "Self-reliance".

Fuller also wants women to be in touch with the nature around them when she says, "If any individual live too much in relations, so that he becomes a stranger to the resources of his own nature, he falls¿into a distraction" (742). By this, Fuller emphasizes the main point that Thoreau made in "Walden", that individuals in their era need to slow down and not focus on material pleasures, and instead they should embrace the beauty of nature. It is interesting how Fuller is able to take the general ideas founded by Emerson and Thoreau of simplicity and self-reliance and relate them to the plight of women's rights. It's almost as if she's saying to women everywhere, "The words of Emerson and Thoreau aren't just for men, but you women can learn to be free and independent as well."

What I'm wondering is if there is any other way that these authors could believe that we could achieve self-actualization other than through discovering the beauty of nature, or is nature the only way to gain this enlightenment?

Your Group 1 Member,

Shawn Olsen