Puritanism and Transcendentalism. Include Specific

¶ … Puritanism and Transcendentalism. Include specific references to the works of Bradstreet (Upon the Burning of Our House) and Thoreau (Resistance to Civil Government)

Compare and contrast Puritanism and Transcendentalism. Include specific references to the works of Bradstreet ("Upon the Burning of Our House") and Thoreau ("Resistance to Civil Government")

Puritanism and Transcendentalism seem to stand as opposite poles of thought, although both are philosophies that flourished in America. While Puritanism was tied to the Puritan church and society, the Transcendentalist movement advocated radical individualism and a break from society, as was made manifest in the life of Henry David Thoreau. Both philosophies advocated simplicity and a rejection of social convention in the name of the truth, but Transcendentalists like Thoreau focused on improving the world in the here and now, rather than upon changing the individual soul to prepare for the world to come, as did Puritan writers like the poet Anne Bradstreet.

Puritans rejected conventional English Christianity. They believed the English church had become corrupted by institutional bureaucracy, Catholicism, and worldliness. The radical Transcendentalist Thoreau believed that the American government had become corrupted and oppressive in its advocacy of territorial expansion and the waging of the Mexican-American War against another nation. American government had become bound to another tradition, just as bad as the British and was "each instant losing some of its integrity" when it engaged in such actions. Thoreau advocated an end to formal law and government, as America's original founders advocated freedom. Thoreau refused to pay his taxes to what he saw as an evil government -- just as the Puritans were also willing to be jailed, and eventually fled England in pursuit of what they felt was the truth.