Every country today differentiates each other through having a unique identity of which the elements are cultures, tradition and religion. Even a country like America was once under the rule of the British. However this did not last as long as it did in India as the people fought back and won what is today called “The War of Independence.” During the time the British ruled various countries they had taught the people under them their ways of conducting every activity in life. In America even after the British were gone the way people lived their lives were still the way they had learned from the British. One such ways of conduct was vividly observable in written literature. Then began the argument that the literature in America should be written differently from how the British would. In 1837 Ralph Waldo Emerson delivered a speech called The American Scholar at Cambridge, Massachusetts to criticize how the Americans still kept alive what they had learned from the British and to remind people the real American culture in every aspect of their lives. Emerson stated that every citizen in America has the right to freedom and to display their own culture. In literature he suggested that scholars can form a new way of writing through nature than memorizing the writings of other authors. The writings of the other authors were present before young scholars in books that limited new ideas. Such history had occurred because of the actions gone wrong by the people in accepting the influences of the Europeans. Emerson was therefore a transcendentalist.
The speech delivered by Emerson indicates the reason why it is important for a man to be free. According to the constitution of U.S (n.d) in the bill of rights every citizen has the right to ...
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... just the scholars but every citizen in America the importance of preserving their own culture with originality in everyone’s ideologies. He has attempted to provide elements through which the new form of literature can grow and it has evidently helped literature in America be more research based and not scholars memorizing from previous texts written by other authors. The American scholar was thus a historic speech that encouraged scholars since to write with freedom encouraging arguments to discover truth for any matter to be discussed.
Works Cited
http://www.history.com/topics/constitution
http://www.cliffsnotes.com/more-subjects/american-government/the-constitution/summary-of-the-constitution
http://history.hanover.edu/courses/excerpts/111emerson-2.html
http://www.shareyouressays.com/99753/short-summary-of-the-american-scholar-by-ralph-waldo-emerson
(H) Freedom is something many crave and fight for. (CS) Freedom has copious attributes and qualities that are present in “Revolution 2.0” by Wael Ghonim, “The Letter from Birmingham” by Martin Luther King Junior, and the ‘Speech at the March on Washington” by Josephine Baker. (G1) Using speech is a glorious way to show your freedom. (G2) People have to be equal to really be free. (G3) Respect is another major quality of freedom. (TH) Speech, equality, and respect all constitute freedom.
“Ralph Waldo Emerson.” PB Works. Ed. Jenny Sindon. PB Works, 2009. Web. 17 Apr. 2014
Ralph Waldo Emerson 1803-1882. The Heath Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Paul Lauter. Boston: Houghton, 1998. 1578-1690.
Patrick henry is considered a rationalist, he wrote and took part in “give me liberty, or give me death” on march 23, 1775. In this work, we can see evidence of the characteristics, themes and style identified with the rationalist movement which was extant in American letters between 1750 and 1800. Patrick henry wrote during this time period of American literature, and as such, remains one of the most identifiable and iconic writers of his time.
Two men, similar in their transcendentalist beliefs and yet so different in their methods of expressing their beliefs on handling the issues of society, were major voices in the anti-slavery movement. While their focuses are more on the subjects of morality and individual choice, they still reflect on how slavery should be addressed by the American people, American referring to the free whites who actually make the decisions. Ralph Waldo Emerson is highly regarded for his views on Transcendentalism during what some of deemed the “American Renaissance.” Emerson establishes his place in history by expressing his liberal agenda through his beliefs that truth is based on intuition and law should be based on individual reflection. He believes that the only way one could truly learn about life is by ignoring knowledge from outside sources and relying on one’s internal voice; he incorporates this belief into the convincing rhetoric of “Last of the Anti-Slavery Lectures.” While Emerson asserts his views on self reliance, he is really trying to sway the views of his audience. This makes us ask the question: Is he really right, or is he only convincing us that he is right? Henry David Thoreau, however, serves as both a complement and a foil for Emerson; while he also expresses his transcendental beliefs, he converges on a split between these beliefs and reason. He articulates his ideas in “Slavery in Massachusetts,” a piece that illustrates how Thoreau separates himself from his own state because of his “contempt for her courts” (1991). While some would argue that Thoreau is somewhat of a better writer than Emerson, it cannot be denied that one cannot reach...
Emerson, Ralph Waldo. “The American Scholar”. American Public Addresses 1740 – 1952. A. Craid Baird. McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., 1956.
The Declaration of Independence, written by Thomas Jefferson, is a document that the majority of American’s know about. It is taught to children as early as elementary school. I remember learning about its basics all the way back in second grade when my teacher had the class put on a play about American history. As young as I was I knew the document is important but the thought did not occur to me that it is the basis for American Ethos. This document is so important that it is referenced in presidential speeches, like President William Clinton’s speech “Our New Covenant.”
The “American Renaissance” was known as the time period which American writers had produced a significant mature level of writing within American and the development of literary nationalism. The “American Renaissance” was influential and shaped the structure of many movements in American’s new settlement by a collection of authors. The author Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote “The Birth-Mark” had relation with the Age of Enlightenment that was involved in the renaissance. Ralph Waldo Emerson work’s “The Poet” and “The American Scholar” represented a national character in this time period. Henry David Thoreau wrote “Resistance to Civil Government” that showed examples of transcendentalism within this movement.
Emerson, Ralph W. "The American Scholar." Give Me Liberty!: An American History. Brief Third ed. Vol. One. New York: W.W. Norton, 2012. 270. Print. Voices of Freedom excerpt
Literature has always been both influenced by history and influential to history. By the early nineteenth century America had already established itself as a nation and was working towards creating a new dream, one they could call their own. However, this new generation of the American people still lacked a sense of self identity. The early nineteenth century proved to be a time where people began to focus more on individualism and self. Transcendentalism became a wide spread philosophy among those searching for a sense of identity. The main concept of Transcendentalism is that enlightenment can only be found within oneself and to understand that everything is interconnected and one with nature (Phillips, William, and Stonestreet 35). While people were still trying to find enlightenment within themselves the writers during this time were determined to create new literature that was “truly native” to the new world and its new ideas (Blair, Dickstein, and Giles). Writers such as William Cullen Bryant, Nathanial Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Henry David Thoreau, and Ralph Waldo Emerson published works that helped define
In The American Scholar, Ralph Waldo Emerson touches on the topic of “individualism” and saw freedom as “an open ended process of self realization by which individuals could remake themselves and their own lives.” He wanted the people to make their life their own especially scholars because they were still connected to European life. He says, “The scholar is the man who must take up into himself all the ability of the time, all the contributions of the past, all the hopes of the future.” He places the responsibility on the individual to accomplish certain tasks, in this case the scholar is the
An influential literary movement in the nineteenth century, transcendentalism placed an emphasis on the wonder of nature and its deep connection to the divine. As the two most prominent figures in the transcendentalist movement, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau whole-heartedly embraced these principles. In their essays “Self-Reliance” and “Civil Disobedience”, Emerson and Thoreau, respectively, argue for individuality and personal expression in different manners. In “Self-Reliance”, Emerson calls for individuals to speak their minds and resist societal conformity, while in “Civil Disobedience” Thoreau urged Americans to publicly state their opinions in order to improve their own government.
America, the land of the free, or which we claim it to be, wasn’t always the way it is now. In many ways each individual is granted their rights and freedom today, but the unfortunate truth is all the leisure’s we have, including freedom, was a nearly a myth in the early Americas or the so called land proclaimed to be “the land of the free”.
Emerson in his speech states that scholars should observe nature and write originally on their own and not memorize or copy the form of writings of other writers. In the American scholar (1837) he states that "Men of talent, that is who start wrong, who set out from accepted dogmas, not from their own sight of principles." This means that even if a person is intelligent but starts his thoughts in the wrong way such as collecting ideas from a text written by other scholars, h...
Ralph Waldo Emerson, one of the great American poets, had the privilege to develop his art in a time of constant change. Born to witness to revolutions unfold, in French and American soil, he had no choice but to be a revolutionary himself. For his time, Emerson expressed views that were constantly at odds with the status-quo; mainly his separation from Christian values and his promotion of transcendental philosophy. For a more in-depth explanation of his philosophies and politics, one would need to look into his essays and letters. However, that would be beyond the scope of this essay. Through a single poem, “The Apology,” this text will attempt to demonstrate the layers of context that Emerson would often hide in his lines. Though they are