Stafford 1
XXXXXXX XXXXXX
Mrs. Stafford
English 11 period 5
11 November
John McCain is a Transcendentalist and I am not
Transcendentalism was part of the Romantic literary movement in America from 1830-1860. Transcendentalists wrote about man’s direct relationship with nature, a universal spirit in everything, self-reliance and intuition, and putting yourself vs. society. Transcendentalistsencouraged humankind not to follow the mindset of the popular majority, but instead pursue their own individual views. The writing goes along with one of the central pillars of Transcendentalism, which is self-reliance. The Transcendentalists deeply valued self-reliance and learning to separate themselves as individuals from society. Ralph Waldo Emerson, a graduate of Harvard and a main Transcendentalist, wrote about the importance of relying on oneself when he said,“The power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried” (Emerson 1). In this quote, Emerson says that we are powerful in ways others can’t see and even we don’t even understand. This power of human spirit and self-reliance was shown by John McCain, but it wasn’t shown by me when I wanted to support him.
John McCain was an American naval aviator in the Vietnam Warin 1967. His plane was shot down over Hanoi and he was taken as a Prisoner of War, or POW. During his time as a POW he was beaten, tortured, and put in solitary confinement. He was wounded when they got him, and they ignored his wounds until they found out his father was a general and they thought this meant they could get real information from him (McCain 2008). He lived in solitary for two years. In total, he was a POW for five years. All of this is awful, but it is not the reason I think he acted like a Transcendentalist. The Vietnamese offered him to go home earlier than this and avoid years of torture. When they asked him if he wanted to go home, John McCain said that he had to think about it. He said that he kept thinking of the Navy’s code of conduct: "You will not accept parole or amnesty…you will not accept special favors." For somebody to go home earlier is a special favor. There's no other way you can cut it (McCain 2008). He declined to go home because he thought he should uphold the code and not leave his men behind, so he declined. It might be weird to think of the military when talking about the Transcendentalists because people think of the military as just being about following orders. It’s true that he used the military’s code of conduct, but it’s also true that he listened to himself. Three other men took the same offer and went home. I think most people would do the same. John McCain did not have God’s work “made manifest by cowards,” (Emerson 1) he was brave because he “accepted the place the divine Providence” had found for him and he stayed with his troop and he stayed true to the promise he had made. I think this is exactly what Emerson meant when he said that man does not know “that which he can do…until he has tried (1). I bet even John McCain wouldn’t have known that he could survive for five years in those conditions because he was a strong man who was true to himself.
In 2008, John McCain ran for President. He ran against President Obama. I was in at Islander Middle School, and we were asked to say who we wanted to win for President and why. Everyone went around the room and read their cards. They were almost all the same. Various things about Obama’s idea of “hope” and having a first black president and even some stuff about his mom growing up here. I had grown up hearing about John McCain from my dad. My family was the only conservative family I knew at the time. Everyone else was liberal or pretending to be. I knew I wanted McCain to win, and I actually wrote that on my paper. I wrote because he was brave and would do the right thing at the right time. When it came time to talk, I didn’t read my card. I said I wanted Obama to win, and I repeated the same reasons everyone else had said. I didn’t want my classmates to make fun of me. I didn’t want to stand out. My face was red and people probably didn’t know why I was embarrassed. I had not read Emerson yet, but I think I understood that the “virtue in most request is conformity” and I conformed. I let myself down. If I had been a man and a nonconformist, if I had expressed myself all the way, as Emerson wanted us to do (Self-Reliance 1) but I wasn’t. I was a middle schooler. I would have told them that I was conservative and that John McCain was my hero because he was more of a man in a hard situation than I was in an easy one. I blame it on middle school, because I wouldn’t do that now. Emerson was right. It gave me “no peace” and it is the first thing I thought about when I read Emerson’s essay. I knew what he meant because my hero was self-reliant, and I wasn’t but I think I have become more self-reliant since.
Works Cited
Emerson, Ralph Waldo. “Self-Reliance.” Originally printed in 1841. Class copy used.
McCain, John.“John McCain, Prisoner of War: A First Person Account.”US World and News Report 28 January 2008.