A Contemporary Example of Transcendentalism

Styx-Man in the Wilderness

The song "Man in the Wilderness" is an excellent example of transcendentalism because of the authors discussion of trying to find himself (optimism), his use of escapism and self-reliance, and his use of individualism.

“The health of the eye seems to demand a horizon. We are never tired, so long as we can see far enough.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nature

• This quote connects to the part of the song that says "Another year has passed me by/Still I look a myself and cry/What kind of man have I become?/All of the years I've spent in search of myself" because he is talking about how there is still hope to be better as long as we keep trying and don't loose sight of what is important. In the song they say that another year has passed and even though he is not who he wants to be yet, he has not given up and that is the important part. This part shows optimism because he is still looking for who he is.

"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately"
-Henry David Thoreau, Walden 

• This quote connects to the part of the song that says "Sometimes I feel like a man in the wilderness/I'm a lonely soldier off to war" because it shows the self-reliance both need to survive in the wilderness. The fact that he says 'lonely soldier' shows that he is alone and has to fight to stay alive much like Thoreau had when he escaped to the woods. It also shows escapism because Thoreau left society to find his roots and Styx feels like they have no choice but to flee and find themselves in the wilderness. 

“Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self Reliance

• This quote connects to the ideal of individualism and the quote from the song "Ten Thousand people look my way/But they can't see the way that I feel". This connects because in their time all of those famous people were misunderstood like Styx and they became great. In this part of the song the singer describes how no one understands how he feels and Emerson assures us that because of that he will be great. It is because these people and this singer stay true to themselves that they are misunderstood but it is because of their individuality and self-reliance that they were able to accomplish so many great things. 

The song "Man in the Wilderness" is an example of transcendentalism because it incorporates transcendental ideals like optimism, self-reliance, and individualism, as well as escapism. It talks about how he wants to become his own self, and live his own life as an individual.