Rhetorical Analysis Of Speak Your Obscure By Ralph Waldo Emerson

To begin his essay and to convey an idea, Ralph Waldo Emerson builds up the opening lines with a charismatic gusto; to which his word choice is very particular, because the words he chooses directly influences his tone throughout these three paragraphs. His tone seems friendly and wise, it could be compared to the “old man at the corner-store” type character; on a lazy summer day, always genuine and offering down to earth advice over a cup of lemonade. It creates such an atmosphere for the audience to become comfortable, and in this case the audience can be assumed to be singular in the context of the text, so it can be implied that message will be personal, which is textbook pathos, and because his proposition plays on our emotions, we take his words to heart. Emerson creates a string of beatific phrases that echoes in the labyrinths of our private minds. Our thoughts, our ideas, are indeed important. Speak your

obscure, somewhat undeveloped ideas, that you think, “for the inmost in due time becomes the outmost - and it shall be the universal sense”. Although well composed and thoroughly thought out, this essay creates an irony within itself, which talks about being original and thinking your own thoughts, yet these are Emerson’s ideas, we are just interpreting them. I guess that is why the second paragraph serves an even greater purpose. It opens the essay to talk about how important it is for each of us to be an individual. It makes us self-conscious, and gives us a new perspective to how we may view individualism.
One interesting thing to notice as you read the first three paragraphs is how Emerson presents axioms in his opening lines to each paragraph, his syntax is conscious and intelligent, you get the big idea straight away.

He ties in the powerful testament to man’s survival through hard work individualistic thoughts, that only through yourself can you provide that “kernel of nourishing corn” to yourself. That analogy links to two metaphors in the opening sentence to the second paragraph, which read “envy is ignorance; imitation is suicide”. How can you survive if you lack intelligence, following in the footsteps of someone else? An interesting quote from this paragraph reads “Not for nothing one face, one character, one fact, makes much impression on him, and another none”. The quote alludes to the idea that an individual's perception is solely his own. There is no real reason for why some ides, things, or people leave an impression and why others do not - it is simply up to the individual to interpret what he sees, which justifies the irony of the

essay.
The climax is reached in the third paragraph, everything Emerson has said has built up to this. The subdued voice heard before now proclaims with full confidence the point that it’s been trying to get across, which is to “trust thyself”. “Every heart vibrates to that iron string”, an allusion to a heavenly harp, found in the divine innocent “reality” of heaven. The grown with all their flaws and sins once inhabited an innocence, and great men, in a sense, never grew up and kept their perceptions to their hearts, were able to employ the most elevated form of thought to achieve transcendence - going beyond the limits of the concrete world to appreciate the higher spiritual reality.