[Kaitlyn Quinlivan]

In response to Elizabeth’s post, I believe that Alcott was satirizing not Thoreau’s Transcendentalism exactly, but those who take Thoreau’s idea of Transcendentalism to extremes- making it so that “self-denial was the fashion” (45). Unlike the men in “Transcendental Wild Oats”, Thoreau was never completely removed from society, in fact he made regular trips into the neighboring village and accepted many visitors to his cabin. Additionally, he didn’t deprive/seclude himself to the point where once he decided to conclude his experiment and return to society, he was unable to do so successfully because of a lack of means and a lack of friends because of having pushed them away with his beliefs. Sister Hope serves to convey Alcott’s views on extreme Transcendentalism because throughout the story, she sacrifices for her family, but never to the point where she, her husband or children are endangered. She represents the healthy medium that Thoreau lives out during his stay at Walden.

On the other hand, I think Alcott contributes to Transcendentalist views because in “Solitude of Self”, in defense of women having equal rights, she emphasizes the individual and the “…solitude, which each and every one of us has always carried with him” (8). Thoreau also emphasizes the individual in everything his experiment in Walden represents- in retreating to Walden, he demonstrates the self-reliance that Alcott writes of, proving that although it seems as though “…man has no time to be anything but a machine” (6), it is possible when one goes “back to basics” and acknowledges that the person you must/can rely on most is oneself.

[Kaitlyn Quinlivan]

“Those things for which the most money is demanded are never the things which the student most wants”. (32) I, like most students, chose to attend the college that I did because I believed it would best prepare me to succeed in my field of study. However, I am lucky and unique in the fact that I have had ample opportunity for field experience while studying- something majors other than education have to seek out on their own accord. Thoreau acknowledges the disconnect between what we are paying for as college students and what we are actually getting in classes that are lacking in the real-world experience we are seeking when he states the following: “I mean that they (college students) should not play life, or study it merely, while the community supports them at this expensive game, but earnestly live it from beginning to end”. (33)

The costs of attending Geneseo, in Thoreau’s opinion, would therefore include not only the literal financial cost that puts us further and further into debt each year, but the cost of the experience we sacrifice by sitting in class instead of being out in the “real world” (working world outside of college) living what it is we are passionate about. Although I can understand this belief, pursuing a college degree is often the only way to attain the job that we desire, and though paying for classes that we don’t choose to take based off of our passions and interests but are required to take is not what we desire most, we are simply doing what is necessary to attempt to succeed and become employed in today’s society because that is what is expected of us and is the way in which we will work ourselves out of debt. It is certainly not as feasible to live life as freely as Thoreau did with all of the expectations that our family and society have for us.

Thoreau defends his beliefs regarding college with the proposal of a communal education of sorts, a debt-free education that students can obtain in the comfort of their own communities. I can see the benefits of this in that it would help to bring communities closer together and contribute to the overall prosperity of a community, but when students attend college, they gain more than the education they receive in class- they have the opportunity to learn from the experience of other students who come from communities across the globe- and in my opinion this education is equally as important as the one that prepares students for the workforce.

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