Transcendentalism in Culture

The Dead Poet's Society has many different themes of transcendentalism in it. The boys' teacher encourages them to take their own grand stances in life and pursue the road less traveled by. Our culture also cherishes these same sentiments of transcendentalism- of non-conformity and individualism. I recently wrote my cause and effect paper on the rise of dystopian fiction and the genre is riddled with tenets of transcendentalism. Protagonists of dystopian fiction value breaking away from societal norms and dystopias tend to represent the suffocating standards of society. One reason that I believe dystopian fiction is so popular is because it echos the messages that society is already saying. Many of the radical societal changes that have recently happened stem back to transcendentalism- "listen to your heart", "be true to yourself", "march to the beat of your own drum". Our need to be connected has drowned in our desire for individualism, as we begin to embrace the ideas of transcendentalism again.