As readers it is our opportunity to compare and contrast the transcendental aspect prevalent in both Henry David Thoreau's Walden and John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath. Both books are fine examples of American literature at its greatest. They are also excellent examples of the Transcendental Philosophy that was championed by authors during their time. Though written roughly one hundred years apart, they both carried the voice of nature that rang loud and clear on the American landscape. Transcendentalism places its utmost respect in the intuitive knowledge man gleans from nature. Nature transcends the limits of human sense experience and teaches us the foundation of moral truths. Both authors relied on the symbiotic relationship between man and nature to connect the reader with the Transcendental concept of "oversoul"- a state of unity in which every man's particular being is contained and made one with all others.
             When Walden was written America was a new turf, a new vast piece of land that had not been altered by the human hand (the Native Americans didn't count because they had always been too respectful of it to leave much of an impact). Transcendentalism purported the philosophy that God was nature. Therefore, in America, it would be easiest for transcendental believers to find a source and reference for their beliefs. Here nature was still fresh. Living in England one knows that every foot of land has a hundred pages of stories that goes with it. In America the writer had no limitations or fears of being repetitive. Open land and ample wealth led to a demand for printing presses, and American writers prospered. This demand was a result of eager new minds searching for new sources of knowledge. Emerson (the father of transcendentalism in America, and Thoreau's mentor) professed the concept of "oversoul". By this he meant that one level of consciousness connects all inhabitants of earth, ...