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Emerson's essay on self-reliance
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Recommended: Emerson's essay on self-reliance
According to Arthur Schlesinger, Jr’s quote, it is asserted that we as human beings have ideas, vision, and audacity. These concepts that are created by an individual are infrequently composed due to society. Yet, for an individual to have an intellectual and moral life, it begins with an individual confronting his own mind and conscience in a room by himself. In order for an individual to do so, it is established through self-reliance and having one’s own individuality. Withal, society’s aspirations are for an individual to conform to the standards that are created. This leads to an individual to have self-reliance which is the dependence and reliance on their own effort and abilities. It is declared that an individual should “believe that …show more content…
It is asserted that “imitation is suicide” and “envy is ignorance” which depicts and demonstrates that emulating another person’s soul is killing one’s own individuality (Emerson 20). Yet, that an individual appreciates and cherishes another human being’s aspect rather than their own originality. With admiring another individual, it influences one to anticipate from growing and flourishing into their true self. The reason being is that an individual is mesmerized and blinded by another person’s distinctiveness. However, every human being is disparate and diverse which is “endowed by their Creator” (Cohen 167). This portrays that God has created every individual in the society to be unique and distinctive in their own way. It is affirmed that “God will not have his work” be “manifest by cowards” which exhibits that the “cowards” are the ones who follow the decisions and actions of others (Emerson 20). Withal, an individual should not be “ashamed” of their ideas that one has created for themselves because every human being has a “divine idea” that represents” or “express” themselves (Emerson 20). Nevertheless, it is proclaimed that “any law that degrades human personality” illustrates “unjust” (King 265). The meaning of this is that disgracing and demeaning an individual for their identity is inequitable. Therefore one’s identity should not be overburdened and altered by society’s standards or vision of people and one should stay true to their
b: Society’s main purpose is to create conformity and sameness. c: They ought to not care but instead be happy with who they are themselves; others opinions do not matter 2. Key Ideas and Details (a) Interpret: According to Emerson, what role does the “divine” have in determining each person’s circumstances? (b)
Throughout our history, we have repeatedly tried to exploit the environment (i.e. nature) in order to perfect our lives. We not only manipulated the materialistic and economic aspect of our world, but we have also struggled to use the moral and the spiritual in making progress within ourselves. Instead of relying on ourselves to accomplish this purpose, we have unfortunately sought help from society's traditional institutions. These institutions, in turn, have tired to manipulate us for their own good, resulting in more harm than help. During the nineteenth century, authors such as Emily Dickinson, Herman Melville, and Nathaniel Hawthorne recognized this and have tried to stop it through their writings. To this end, they have adopted Ralph Waldo Emerson's view that people choose to deny the power of reason, or their own mind. He believed that until people choose to see the "light" of reason, they will remain morally dead. With the achievement of reason, external institutions will remain useless and they will understand that the spirit they so vehemently desired is indeed within them and will without a doubt eliminate their moral darkness. Therefore, Emerson affirmed that the only eternal law is that of experience and that "the one thing in the world of value is the active soul-the soul, free, sovereign, active." This essay will discuss how these authors (Melville, Hawthorne, and Dickinson) composed writings that mimicked Emerson's view of life to accentuate individualism against subjugation.
In this society, one does not think, speak, or act, in a way that is beneficial for oneself. Every single citizen is indoctrinated with the belief that by acting for one’s own benefit, they are sinning. From a young age, they are taught the mantra of their society, “We are nothing. Mankind is all. By the grace of our brothers are we allowed our lives. We exist through, by and for our brothers who are the State. Amen” (21).
Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World portrays a utopian society that has no flaw. Although many new precedents are portrayed, when studied in depth, many similarities between this perfect world and our modern society outweigh the few differences. This utopia of a society is paralleled with our society that is nowhere near perfection. Drug usage, individualism, and relationships will be the basis of comparison in this analysis, and we will see if the society presented in Brave New World will one day become our own.
Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.” Emerson is a firm believer of maintaining self-reliance and values rather than following the crowd. He also explains that in order to be truly successful in life, a person must make decisions and trust in his or her judgment. In today’s society, teenagers are more likely to not be self-reliant because the teens feel they will be judged for having different beliefs. People today need to realize that they should not conform to be like the rest of the world, they must not depend on the judgment and criticism of others, and people must refuse to travel somewhere in order to forget their personal problems. Through Emerson’s piece, readers are able to reflect on how people in the world today must try to be independent of others and uphold their personal opinions and philosophy.
In Self-Reliance Emerson says to "Insist on yourself; never imitate. Your own gift you can present every moment with the cumulative force of a whole life 's cultivation; but of the adopted talent of another, you have only an extemporaneous, half possession. That which each can do best, none but his Maker can teach him. No man yet knows what it is, nor can, till that person has exhibited it. Where is the master who could have taught Shakspeare? Where is the master who could have instructed Franklin, or Washington, or Bacon, or Newton? Every great man is a unique. The Scipionism of Scipio is precisely that part he could not borrow. Shakspeare will never be made by the study of Shakspeare. Do that which is assigned you, and you cannot hope too much or dare too much”("Emersonian Perfectionism: A Passage From 'Self-Reliance '" NPR). By this he means: do not imitate, or take the work of another to help oneself, “every great man is unique” ("Emersonian Perfectionism: A Passage From 'Self-Reliance '" NPR). To imitate is to see something and decide one would rather replicate what one sees rather than valuing one 's own self. If one put 100% effort of his own uniqueness into a project, he or she will have 100% of the prosperity and feelings of success returned back. However, if one adopts, or takes the talent or inspiration of another, one will only posses or fell less than what he truly is if he had done it on his own. “To
Individuality is a characteristic that sets you apart from everyone else. The author Tim O’Brien illustrates this through Rat Kiley, Kiowa and Mary Anne in his novel, The Things They Carried. Individuality shows the personality of a character, reveals the link between personality and the physical items the soldiers carried, and how individuality is used to create teamwork.
If I can successfully shape my life around ideas of self-reliance I can be exactly who I want to be. I look around me and don’t want to conform to society’s standards, I recognize that there is an easy way out, but try my best to remain true to myself by following my heart with pure conviction. Because of my desire to remain true to myself, I closely identify with Emerson in “Self-Reliance”: “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.”
Both A “Brave New World” and events from our own world disprove the statement that individuality is seen as a threat to a harmonious society. In the book Huxley introduces the characters Bernard, Helmholtz, and John as outsiders. They do not fit into the societies that they are a part of which threatens the system Mustafa Mond and the other world leaders have instilled into the society. The accusation above is flawed and incorrect. Individuality was seen as a threat to a harmonious society however it is not a threat. It is important for civilization to keep moving forward.
Thoreau, Henry David, and Jeffrey S. Cramer. Walden : A Fully Annotated Edition. New Haven:
Currently, there are many discussions regarding society’s views on how a “good” person should act. For example, in one society going to war may be viewed as a patriotic act, while in another society it may be viewed negatively because it can be seen as an act promoting violence. Furthermore, there are flaws in always conforming to society’s standards because it takes away one’s individuality. These topics are raised in the “Unknown Citizen” which is a poem by W.H. Auden that describes a man who is viewed by society as a perfect person and also in “Do Not Go Gently” by Dylan Thomas where he urges society to not accept death and fight it. As a result, there are actions that society declares as being righteous, but it is also important that people follow their own intuition because that way they become their own person.
In the recent weeks, I have noticed a trend in our cultural beliefs regarding groups outside of our own. As a nation, while the United States has a strongly individualistic nature from a personal perspective, there is also a strong collectivist belief regarding everyone outside of themselves and their groups. Rather than believing that each member of an external group is responsible for their decisions alone (myth of individualism), separating them from a collective (one bad apple), the consensus is generally geared opposite. For example, the belief that all immigrants want to steal American jobs, when one is not an immigrant, or that feminists are actually misandrists, when one is not a feminist. What I believe we have
Ralph Waldo Emerson, nineteenth century poet and writer, expresses a philosophy of life, based on our inner self and the presence of the soul. Emerson regarded and learned from the great minds of the past, he says repeatedly that each person should live according to his own thinking. I will try to explain Emerson’s philosophy, according to what I think he is the central theme in all his works.
Ralph Waldo Emerson’s main theme in “Self-Reliance” places emphasis on the individual’s ideas and not the ideas of others. Emerson strongly believes that “imitation is suicide.” To Emerson, if a person possesses an opinion, the person should voice that opinion immediately without doubt. As Emerson states, “History, and the state of the world at any one time is directly dependent on the intellectual classification then existing in the minds of men. Beware when God
.... We often see other’s character and change to be like them. By doing this, we lose our own inner beauty. We are not our selves; we are a copy of someone else.