...major figures in the movement of Transcendentalism was Ralph Waldo Emerson. Emerson’s essay “Self Reliance” explains his beliefs of individualism, human purpose, the use of nature and social responsibility. Although I don’t believe we will ever have a true understanding of our purpose on earth, I feel that we all need to believe in something in order to feel that we are productive additions to society and hold purpose. In modern day society examples of self reliance, which is close to my heart pertains myself and my brother. I as a single mother faced struggles in order to provide my daughter with the essentials of survival. I worked consistently to provide her with a different upbringing than I had to try and prevent history from repeating itself. I guided her in the direction of fulfilling her education and always told her to be herself. While raising her I am also attending school to further my education which is another example of self reliance. My last example within my own life is my brother whom is gay. The struggles that he has had to face I would not wish for anyone. The hatred and ridicule that he has gone through, only to continue to be him-self and hold his head up proud is admirable. It takes a very strong individual to stay true to your-self while constantly being knocked to the ground and for that I hold the highest respect and admiration to my brothers and the gay community. In Emerson’s “Self Reliance” the quote “There is a time in every man's education when...
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...Society Through Thoreau’s and Emerson’s Eyes Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau are considered two of the most influential and inspiring writers of their time. Ralph Waldo Emerson, who was an essayist, and poet, was born on May 25, 1803, and is generally considered the father of American philosophy that rejects the idea that knowledge can be fully derived from experience and observation rather, truth exists in the spiritual world. Henry David Thoreau is his student, who was also a great essayist and critics. Both men extensively studied and embraced nature, and both men encouraged and practiced individualism, nonconformity and freedom. In Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay “Self Reliance” and Henry David Thoreau’s essay “Civil Disobedience”, both composure thinkers speak about being individual and what changes need to be made in society. Ralph Waldo Emerson and his follower, Henry David Thoreau, both individualists, attacked the religious, political, and cultural values of American society in order to make people aware that they are more important than everything, including government and society. According to Emerson, society is an obstruction against the individuality of its members, “Society is a joint-stock company, in which the members agree, for the better securing of his bread to each shareholder, to surrender the liberty and culture of the eater. The virtue in most requests is conformity”. The solution, for Emerson, is self-reliance, meaning that man is only responsible...
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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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...Transcendentalism Essay The transcendentalism era is a religious movement that started in the 1800s. Transcendentalist such as Margaret Fuller edited “The dial” and Henry david thoreau wrote “Civil disobedience”. Ralph Waldo Emerson; one belief of a transcendentalist; is believing that everyone is naturally good. He also believed that a person’s power is limitless. He wrote both of “Nature”, and “Self-Reliance”. Ralph Waldo Emerson a transcendentalist who believed that people should be independent is why he led the transcendentalist club and relates his theme to the hunger games movie. (“Guided Notes”) Ralph Emerson is a transcendentalist who wrote the essay “self-reliance”. The theme of “Self-Reliance” is being able to rely on yourself or...
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...Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau were both born in Massachusetts in the early 19th century. Emerson was born in Boston in 1803 and Thoreau was born in Concord in 1817. Both are writers and proponents of Transcendentalism--the belief that man, by studying nature and examining self, can transcend his humanity and become one with God. Both used literary devices in their works (essays), metaphors and have similar themes. Both Thoreau and Emerson used the theme: trust yourself, know yourself, be yourself; slow down and "simplify, simplify, simplify"; examine nature to find truths about yourself; human ingenuity will always show itself; trust self before government; man is inherently good. These two men believe that nature is what forces us not to depend on others' ideas but to develop our own. Nature is ever changing so we must keep searching for explanations about human life. They feel that nature is the key to knowing all. In Emerson’s “Self-Reliance”, social responsibility is important. Similar to “Self-Reliance”, Thoreau’s “Civil Disobedience” shares the same philosophical ideas. Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay “Self Reliance” and Henry David Thoreau’s essay “Resistance to Civil Government (“Civil Disobedience”), both transcendentalist thinkers speak about being individual and what reforms and changes need to be made in our society Social responsibility is often encouraged and is used to...
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...Sanaya Williams PH-221 Professor Bradley Final Paper- Ralph Waldo Emerson Self-Reliance “Self- Reliance” is considered one of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s best-known essays. The essay was first published in 1841 in his collection, Essays: First Series. This essay contains the most thorough statement of Emerson’s emphasis on the need for individuals to avoid conformity and false consistency, and instead follow their own instincts and ideas. This essay shows Emerson’s ways for making and translating classical philosophy and turning it to comprehensible language, and signifying its relevance to everyday life. It is broken into three sections: the value of and barriers to self-reliance, self-reliance and the individual, and self-reliance and society. The Value of and Barriers to Self-Reliance was my favorite section. Emerson began his essay with the assertion, “To believe in your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men.” This one statement summed up what I thought self-reliance was which was the reliance upon one’s own thoughts and ideas. In this section Emerson argues that people such as Plato are held at the highest regard simply because they spoke what they thought. Plato did not rely on the words of someone else, books, or tradition. Emerson explained that another barrier for self-reliance is the fear of our own consistency. A quote that went along with his example would be “a reverence for our past act for computing out...
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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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...Transcendentalism, a philosophy that follows in the idea that knowledge comes from analyzing our own individual thoughts, rather than what science has proven, has been practiced for over 200 years. Some of the most reknown transcendentalists include Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. I share a personal connection to the ideal of integrity in that as I grow older, it's crucial to my future self that I establish myself as an individual with personal morals, regardless of the status quo. The concept of integrity being the path to internal success is expressed in both Emerson’s, Self Reliance, and Thoreau’s, Civil Disobedience, although perceived in different forms, the notion of individual thought is evidently the common theme. In...
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...While comparing Henry David Thoreau's Walden, or Life in the Woods (1854) and Ralph Waldo Emerson's Nature (1836), there are comparable beliefs regarding simplicity and the capacity of the human mind. Transcendentalism is considered a philosophy of self-reliance and individualism, however transcendentalism was often seen as more than a philosophy; it was treated almost as a religion. Nature was viewed as its church and it idealizes God as its sacred being. Emerson’s and Thoreau’s key theme in their writings was to help one reconnect 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 EMERSON’S SELF RELIANCE, HIS TIME VS. PRESENT Sylvia L. Koch Everest University Online Abstract This paper is in response to Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay entitled “Self Reliance”. The only source for this paper is the essay itself as the rest is in my own words, with the exception of examples of APA formatting observed on Owl Perdue Online Writing Lab. After reading Mr. Emerson’s essay titled “Self Reliance”, more than a couple of times mind you, I believe that I understand just what he meant to express through this writing. It was difficult for me to understand the first couple of times because his vocabulary and mine are of different times. As different as our words so are the societies in which we live. He, being from a time where society (in general) were as polite as people were ever in time; To me, in a time where too many people express their “individualism”, to the extreme but in a way that I do not believe Emerson had imagined or hoped for. When Emerson stated his opinion on thinking for oneself rather than conforming to the opinions of society, trusting oneself, and the importance of acting independently for oneself rather than for the praise of society I think he meant that through conformity, or just following others, a person is really making no actual contributions or change to society, they are just along for the ride. I believe he is absolutely right about that, I think people should always trust themselves to say what they really...
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...Cynthia Katasi English 103 Mr. Voth 06/20/2013 Charity and Individualism: In the year of 1841, a writer by the name of Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote an essay titled “Self-Reliance” about his philosophy on what it means to be a self-reliant individual through a series of ideas. Emerson’s philosophy is one of optimism and hope, it is based as much on intuition as it is on logic or reason, and it is idealistic in its validation of the inherent worth of each individual form of existence. Two of the ideas that Emerson writes about are “Charity” and “Individualism.” He rejects the idea of charity being an “apology” and wants the individual to live free of shame. According to Emerson, it is better for charitable acts to be genuine rather inconstant. However, he believes that Individualism is important and that people should trust and be true to themselves. Emerson considers charity as an unacceptable institution. According to him, charity is uncharitable and hypocritical. He argues that a man should worry more about his or her own family and community at home than about “black folk a thousand miles off” (4), and he chides people who give money to the poor. “Are they my poor?” he asks. He refuses to support morality through donations to organizations rather than directly to individuals. The concrete act of charity, in other words, is real and superior to abstract or theoretical morality. He sees charity as cloaked with hate and pride, as an untrue institution that serves only our...
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...Ralph Waldo Emerson was a writer who wrote mainly about self-reliance. “Self-reliance” was a major essay he published in 1841. Many of the quotes Emerson used in the essay were all very important and supporting statements. One quote he used was “To believe your own thought, to believe what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men,-that is genius.” The quote Emerson used in the essay was to basically show the true colors of society and how it’s good to think for yourself. “To believe your own thought, to believe what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men,-that is genius.” This quote is telling how society is a group of people who would rather have someone make decisions for them to insure that they can get...
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...In Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “Self-Reliance” his main idea is that it's important for an individual to stay true to their own beliefs and ideas, and that individuals should learn to trust themselves and speak their mind. Emerson’s insight can be related to Herman Hesse’s novel, Siddhartha. In the novel, Siddhartha chooses not to follow teachers, and go his own way. In both works, Siddhartha and “Self-Reliance” it's evident that the best path that you can take is your own, and that true success comes after accepting your own ideas, and your own ideas only. These ideas are evident in Siddhartha when Siddhartha departs from the Samanas and, when Siddhartha leaves his worldly life to follow his own path to enlightenment. The theme of Siddhartha is similar to the theme of “self reliance”, both discuss the idea of following ones own path. This is proven in Siddhartha's actions. The first time this theme is shown is when Siddhartha departs from the Samanas and decides not to go with Buddha even though he agrees with his teachings. Siddhartha...
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...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 the way we dress, think and speak. An individual must think for themself in to order to achieve their inner self. If one can follows his dream, he will truly be able to live his life with full happiness and joy. He will truly understand the concept of freedom and become more spiritually fulfilled in his new way of life. Moreover, living simple can help with fulfilling...
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...years and two months in order to live a simple and independent life. Thoreau claims that “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 have not lived” (61). In Walden, Thoreau upholds beliefs that he shares with transcendental authors such as Ralph Waldo Emerson. These beliefs include solitude, self-reliance, immersion in nature, and spiritual rebirth. Transcendentalism, a philosophical movement in the 19th century, stood against the individual’s conformity to societies and institutions. Instead, transcendentalism encouraged individuals to rise above society and live free, independent lives. Transcendentalism stemmed from discontent with Calvinism, a popular religion of the 19th century founded by John Calvin. Transcendentalists rebelled against predestination, the theory that individual are predestined at birth to go to heaven or hell. Thoreau brought with him to Walden Pond another transcendental belief, the importance of self-reliance. He...
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