Eustace- Transcendentalism

I believe that Eustace is in some ways a Transcendentalist but he does not actively seek to be one. He shares many of the ideas of Transcendentalism, including the desire to understand nature and do hard work, and he also generally avoids religion, but he never preached nor actively sought to be a Transcendentalist. Some of these tenets of Transcendentalism, rather, came naturally with his own desire to be a true mountain man. His interest in surviving in the woods on his own, and his interest in Indians and their culture helped to give him the ideas he shared with Transcendentalists. His study of Indian culture and the reverence they showed the Earth along with his good-natured attitude are what led to him not only respecting the Earth but trying to understand Nature, one of the prime tenets of the Transcendentalists. Further, he forsook religion, however it was not for the reasons that the Transcendentalists did. He merely didn’t attend because he knew his beliefs already and felt no need to waste his time going to Sunday morning mass. Though he may have shared many basic tenets with a lot of Transcendentalists, I don’t believe that Eustace was ever actually an active seeker of their ideas.