...Emerson’s Self Reliance Just like the title says Emerson’s writing reflects the importance of thinking for ones self. This can be seen right away when Emerson places a poem at the beginning of his writing. The title for this poem is “Ne te quaesiveris extra”, which translates into “Look to no one outside yourself”. Emerson compares a person who has original thought as childlike. He sees conformity as one of the worst things a person can do, but acknowledges that this is hard not to do. “It is easy in the world to live after the world’s opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude” (1625). Emerson is also very against routine. He sees routine as the killer of originality. If you stay in a routine you never have a chance to experience anything new. “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds” (1626). Emerson’s view on American identity is that society represses originality. For one to reach the sublime state one has to have original thought. This can be seen towards the end of his essay. “Where is the master who could have taught Shakespeare? Where is the master who could have instructed Franklin, or Washington, or Bacon, or Newton? Every great man is a unique” (1635). All of these people created their own original thoughts and when people told them something was impossible they didn’t believe this and instead saw it as a...
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...Individuals simply relying on others suppresses the individual from knowing who they are. Children who grow without doing anything for themselves feel lost once their source of reliance no longer lifts them up. Children are meant to stand on their own and walk their own paths. In the essay Self-Reliance, Emerson discusses the importance of the individual’s mindset. Emerson suggests that the individual is to stand firm in the path he/she creates instead of simply following the paths of others. Emerson uses the symbolism of grass and roses to represent how each life is not determined by anything but the rose or grass itself. Emerson states, “(Roses) make no reference to former roses or to better ones; they are for what they are,” (279). Nature, such as grass and roses, doesn’t determine the course of their life based off of other plants. Nature simply focuses on the course that would benefit its own system rather than imitating other plants. Emerson suggests the same of the individual. The individual...
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...Title: Thoreau and Emerson In today’s society each individual has the ability to thinks for themselves, but the inception of different ideas and thoughts has led to a population that’s dominated by the majority . We live in a society where a media, television and internet are the sources of manipulating a person’s mind. It also creates their mindset to determine how one think about themselves or and different view point on topic. In this particular essay I am going to be talking about two main people who had similar argument about how to be individual and not let government take control over your lives. Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau were most influential writers of their time. They both had encouraged and practice individualism and nonconformity. In Ralph Waldo Emerson essay “Self Reliance” and Henry David Thoreau essay “Resistance to Civil Government” both spoke about how to become individual and what improvements needed to be made in American society. Emerson’s writings focus more on the self part of humanism and independence from society. On the other hand, Thoreau focused on writing on matters of the self but tended to have more of a political overtone in his argument. They both wanted to attack the dominant religious, political and cultural values of American society in order to make people aware that the individual is more important than the government and society. Thoreau and Emerson tried to incorporate the idea of relying on others to determine...
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...Emerson and Thoreau In Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay Self Reliance and David Henry Thoreau’s essays Civil Disobedience, Walking, and Life Without Purpose the two writers seem to have about the same message. Both of them talk about why people need to think for themselves and not try to be like everyone else. Emerson shows how famous people like Jesus, Socrates, and Galileo were different and because of it they did great things. He ends by saying “to be great is to be misunderstood.” I agree with this because people who try to be just like everyone else or try to fit in because they care too much about what other people think of them aren’t usually very successful. Emerson also has another quote saying “it is easy in the world to live after the world’s opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.” I really like this quote because it shows the importance of sticking to what you believe in and not falling under peer pressure, something I pride myself on. In Walking, Thoreau talks about nature and how people need time to be alone so they can clear their minds. This essay is kind of like Nature by Emerson because both talk about needing to be away from society and alone in nature. Thoreau makes many points about the government in his essay Civil Disobedience. He talks about how the government is “best which governs least” or not at all. Thoreau talks about how...
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...Emerson is often considered the father of the transcendental philosophical tradition. Transcendentalists believe in three major principles: individualism, idealism and the divinity of nature. The Transcendentalists believed that an individual could “transcend” or go beyond the physical world of the senses into a different world of spiritual experience through free will and intuition. Emerson and the Transcendentalists believed that God was not distant and unreachable, but knowable through our own souls and through a deep connection with nature. The central themes in all of his works were individuality, freedom, human self-realization and relation to nature. In his essay on Nature, Emerson explores the relationship between humans and nature. He asserts that the beauty of nature can be understood by people only when one is in solitude. The true understanding of significance of nature is hindered by the hustle and bustle of daily life. Emerson is of the view that we take nature for granted. For example, we take the stars for granted because we know that they will always be there. However, although they are “accessible” in that they are visible to us, they are also inaccessible due to the distance between us. We can never physically touch them. However, there is an inter-connectedness among the nature, soul and the divine that we miss. “Nature always wears the colors of the spirit.” He feels that we must view nature from the eyes of a child. A child sees things in new an unbiased...
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...RALPH WALDO EMERSON “FROM PULPIT TO PULPIT From pulpit to pulpit or does it only appear that way to a few. Ralph Waldo Emerson’s career began in the midst of tragedy and controversy. Emerson first lost his wife Barely a year after marriage in 1831. Emerson then resigned as Pastor of the Second Unitarian Church of Boston in 1832. Both of these events were to be major turning points in Ralph Waldo Emerson’s life. Somewhere around 1833 or 1834 Emerson set sail for the Old World, Italy being the first destination of his journey. Emerson, R. W. (1959) Sherrill, R. A. (Sept 2007) After some thirty plus days at sea, He finally arrived in the Mediterranean and started his whirlwind tour of Italy. He visited most of the same places frequented by tourist Art Galleries, Churches, and other places of natural beauty and historical significance. The next stop on his tour of the Old World was Switzerland after arriving there he spent the month of June. The third destination of his trip was Paris, France where he was to stay for the month of July. The final stop on this tour of the Old World was the United Kingdom namely England and Scotland. Emerson, R. W. (1959). After Emerson’s trip of Mediterranean and European areas he again endured another month at sea, back to Boston. Here he spent most of his time with his brothers, mother, and a few of his closest friends. It was during time of his life and career...
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...Waldo Emerson were both influential writers of the transcendentalist movement in the early to mid-nineteenth century. Before moving into solitude, Thoreau had experienced two tragic deaths of close ones: his brother John in 1842, and two weeks later, Emerson’s son, Waldo, who Thoreau had deeply cared about. After not writing for two months following these deaths, Thoreau finally wrote a letter to Emerson in which he attempts to comfort Emerson by connecting himself to Emerson through their similar transcendental beliefs that emotional and spiritual rebirth is a significant function of nature’s glory, that nature is all-powerful so humans should base their lives off of it, and that having life does not mean one...
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...Jonathan Veldhuyzen Professor Matthew Towles English 201-002 11/21/2014 Ralph Waldo Emerson: His own God and Transcendentalist Worldview “The foregoing generations beheld God and nature face to face; we, though their own eyes. Why should not we also enjoy an original relation to the universe? Why should not we have a poetry and philosophy of insights and not of tradition, and a religion by revelation to us,” (940, 941) were the words written by Emerson in the introduction of his renown work “Nature” as he espoused that men should not necessarily believe in a God through ideals seen in the Bible and evidenced in nature, but rather use their own logic through poetry and philosophy to determine their own God. His writings espoused beliefs that do not reflect a Christian worldview, but rather bases man’s salvation on his own intuition. Emerson was a rebel in his time, he had independent views that did not align to any system of values. According to “Anthology of American Literature,” Bronson Alcott declares that “Emerson’s church consists of one member-himself.” These words signify that Emerson’s ideas and values were so radical for the time that very few people shared his beliefs. Yet, he was not alone in espousing thinking that seemed somewhat pantheistic and contradictory to what he had preached many years earlier. During the 1830’s Ralph Waldo Emerson joined with some other literary authors of the day in supporting a set of values that looked beyond a Supreme Being for...
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...with nature and gain a simpler understanding of life. For instance, Henry David Thoreau experiments the transcendentalist beliefs about nature by living at Walden Woods in a small cabin on Emerson's property. Here Thoreau discovered the simplicity in nature and the exposure it brings to our mind. Both Emerson and Thoreau believe that nature is what imposes us not to rely on others' ideas but to establish our own. Nature is always changing so we must keep seeking for the meaning of human life. Thoreau wanted to live a simple life, in order to find a deeper meaning of human existence. He writes, "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I...
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...Ralph Waldo Emerson was conceived on May 25, 1803, in Boston, Massachusetts. In 1821, he assumed control as executive of his sibling's school for young ladies. In 1823, he composed the sonnet "Good-Bye." In 1832, he turned into a Transcendentalist, prompting the later expositions "Self-Reliance" and "The American Scholar." Emerson kept on composing and address into the late 1870s. Emerson married Ellen Tucker in 1829. When she passed away from tuberculosis in 1831, he was filled with sorrow. Her death, added to his own faith crisis which made him leave from the ministry. Emerson traveled to Europe were het met with literary figures and on his return back to home in 1833,is when he began to lecture on topics of spiritual experience and ethical...
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...Ralph Waldo Emerson was an American Transcendentalist poet, philosopher and essayist during the 19th century (www.biography.com). One of his most famous quotes was, “Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow" (Emerson). To me, this has been a quote used many times throughout my life. Things in my life have relayed this message to me in many different ways such as trying new foods, playing new sports, and wearing different clothing. Growing up, my mom has encouraged me to try different foods that I’m not used to. When I was little, she would say, “Eat your greens!” Of course I would never listen, but when I got older, I started eating them more. This sparked new curiosities that led me to trying...
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...Ralph Waldo Emerson says: ”The happiest man is he who learns from nature the lesson of worship”. In his first book; "Nature", Emerson tells many ideas about life but the most important is about the relationship between nature and humans.Emerson lived long enough in a forest to realize many lessons that nature can give us, one of which was one of the ones that most surprised him was its worship. Emerson learned to see the world in a different way from the rest of the authors, that's why his books were very special. Emerson was a Christian since he was a little boy, then he was ordained as a pastor. He concentrated on biblical studies; In my opinion, Emerson learned the true meaning of writing and wisdom from his studies of the Bible. When...
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...“Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist.” As Ralph Waldo Emerson outlined in this quote, those who wish to be present in society, therefore classified as “a man”, must live by a transcendental way of life. Transcendentalism, a political and social movement, takes root in nonconformity. It alo relies heavily on the reflection of the Divine Soul that can be found in all objects, and on the importance of nature. The journey into nature, taken by Chris McCandless, is a direct representation of the views of Emerson, as reflected in “Nature”, and “Self-Reliance”, put into action. Emerson wrote both of these essays in order to show the positive impact transcendentalism can have on one’s live, and why more people should live by it, like McCandless. In his essay entitled “Nature”, Emerson wrote, “The rays that come from those heavenly worlds, will separate between him and vulgar things.” By separating oneself from the material world, all the detrimental aspects of life will be eliminated. In this essay, he also references childhood and the importance of childhood curiosity even as an adult. People should think of their childhood, and about...
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...Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson were both influential people. Thoreau was inspired by Emerson's ideas. They encouraged the people around them to think for themselves, simplify their lives, and enjoy nature. These are the major similarities in their philosophies on life. Thoreau and Emerson both believed in self-reliance. Thoreau thought that people should live their life exactly how they want. He did not want people to live the life that their parents wanted them to. Thoreau said, "pursue his own way." He saw that many people just take the easy route and conform to the world. He wanted people to break tradition and do what they loved. Emerson believed that you should trust yourself. He said, "speak what you think now… and tomorrow speak what tomorrow thinks… though it contradicts everything you said." He was not afraid to contradict himself, because that meant he had learned from his experiences. He wanted people to say what they thought, whether others agreed with them or not. Thoreau and Emerson's belief in self-reliance also trickled into a life of simplicity....
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...In Self-Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson was written in 1841 begins his essay with affirmation, “To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men, — that is genius.” Meaning that ones thoughts and ideas are unique each individual and we should confidence of these thoughts. Ralph Waldo Emerson states that the “the strongest man in the world is he who stands alone.” This statement refers to trusting one intuition and have the confidence to speak our mind. Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau were both influential philosophers in society and have brought about brilliant ideas to bring change into society. Both of these brilliant men had similar views on social responsibility, intuition,...
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