ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

Detailed explanation-1: -Transcendentalist author, Henry David Thoreau sees materialism as the destruction of society and one’s mind. He articulates this in Walden, “Cultivate poverty like a garden herb, like sage. Do not trouble yourself much to get new things, whether clothes or friends. Turn the old; return to them.

Detailed explanation-2: -Transcendentalists believe that society and its institutions-particularly organized religion and political parties-corrupt the purity of the individual. They have faith that people are at their best when truly self-reliant and independent. It is only from such real individuals that true community can form.

Detailed explanation-3: -It can be a fantastic method of self-discovery and coping with the world around an individual. However, much like everything else, it is harmful when taken to an extreme, and it is very easy to do so, through misinterpretation.

Detailed explanation-4: -Every materialist will be an idealist; but an idealist can never go backward to be a materialist. The idealist, in speaking of events, sees them as spirits. He does not deny the sensuous fact: by no means; but he will not see that alone.

Detailed explanation-5: -Thoreau is highly critical of materialism and consumption. He argues that when people have a lot of wealth they begin to concentrate on how to spend their money, instead of on how they should live their lives.