Autonomy In Taiwan

Outliers: The Story of Success, by Malcolm Gladwell, and the essay Self-Reliance, by Ralph Waldo Emerson, interact with each other quite well with many similarities and differences. In Gladwell’s book, he shares many stories of how people become successful, explaining that success is not achieved based on the character traits and work habits of an individual. He says, “We all know that successful people come from hardy seeds. But do we know enough about the sunlight that warmed them, the soil in which they put down the roots…” (Gladwell, 20) Gladwell insists that success counts on where an individual comes from and all aspects of their life. However, in Self-Reliance, Emerson never mentions success. He explains the importance of individualism and free thought. “What I must do is all that concerns me, not what people think.” (Emerson, 9) Emerson argues that everyone should go out and seek the life that pleases them, whether that is success, or not. Despite the differences in the two texts, in their writings, both authors show how individuals can step away from the rest of society and become outliers.

Self-reliance is the freedom of being independent. One only relies on oneself and doesn’t look for help or for anyone to save them. One is perfectly content with being solely reliant. Three people who believed greatly in self-reliance were Chris McCandless, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Henry David Thoreau. They had many different beliefs and along with acting out in civil disobedience, acting in nonconformity, thinking nature was most important, and being a transcendentalist, they was also self reliant. McCandless, Emerson, and Thoreau were all people who believed strongly in self-reliance.

In Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay titled “Self-Reliance” he speaks on the topic of the individual, creating the idea that an individual being independent leads to greatness. Emerson’s writing within this memoir is relatable to young individuals who are looking for themselves, an individual must avoid conformity and false consistency while following their own thoughts making themselves an individual. Within the essay, Emerson uses a range of rhetorical devices to prove that every individual can do great by being an individual and not like everyone else, something that young people everywhere should hear while growing up with the heinous act of peer pressure.

To be self-reliant calls for the individual to rely on themselves, but even more so, it calls for he or she to forego society and “be a

When young adults are presented with the expectation to join society, they lose the capability to trust their own opinions and enact judgment based on their morals. The inability for young adults to understand their full potential translates to them not understanding how they can achieve their future endeavors. Ralph Waldo Emerson, a prominent Transcendentalist, flourished society’s perspective on cherishing what they have without the help of aids with his essay, “Self-Reliance.” Emerson’s essay uses the stylistic techniques of compare and contrast along with cause and effect. He contradicts society’s claims of what is deemed self-reliance and associates their views with false arguments. On the other hand, Henry David Thoreau, a widely-known philosopher, communicated his beliefs of self-reliance with his personal essay, “Where I Lived and What I Lived For.” Thoreau demonstrates his experience in the woods as one of the most important times in his life where he learned about life’s necessities and how to rely on himself. Both Emerson and Thoreau interpret the lack of reliance in an individual as an inhibiting factor in a young adult’s ability to achieve greateness in their introduction, development, and conclusion paragraphs.

There was a time she didn’t know how to describe a “white board marker” in Chinese, so she asked her class how to say it. “One girl, who went by the name of Tracy, eagerly told [Stephanie the word], and had a huge smile on her face” (Lam). Even though the language barrier was difficult, she and her students overcame it together with pointing and various other universal gestures and facial expressions. This way, the students were encouraged to understand English better to communicate with their teacher, and my cousin refined her own oral Chinese skills. The students “were kind and willing to help despite [her] poor Chinese, and didn’t judge [her] either” (Lam). The students were happy enough that she came all the way to Taiwan to teach them English. They respected this, and were eager to help her discover a new culture and improve on her Chinese abilities. The barrier was still tough for Stephanie, but thanks to the kindness of her students, it was much easier to bear through and succeed. It was a new and unknown world for my cousin, but she still made the most of her experience and discovered so much more about East Asian culture.

In the first two paragraphs of “Self-Reliance,” Emerson conveys the idea that society needs to become more self-reliant. Emerson introduces the analogy, “no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given him to till” (1). The metaphor, “nourishing corn,” correlates to how most people in society rely on the helping of others to make decisions and endure tasks. Also, Emerson writes, “for the better securing of his bread to each shareholder, to surrender the liberty and culture of the eater” (2). The image of “surrender[ing] the liberty and culture of the eater” translates to how society relies on the higher power to take tasks head on for them and do not rely on themselves and their own thoughts. Throughout the first two paragraphs of Emerson’s text, he uses analogies and imagery to convey the central idea that society needs to become more self-reliant.

One of the most impertinent characteristics of a happy life, is the loyalty to one’s morals and ideals. In order to thrive, one has to know what they stand for and not allow anyone to change their path in life. While growing and changing, their path may shift on its own accord, but it should never be moved by anyone other than the person who will follow it, as others who try to change it, will not walk it, and will not suffer any detriments to their life. Sandra Cisneros and Kathryn Stockett, authors of The House on Mango Street and The Help respectively, stress that loyalty to one’s character, despite outside forces, is important to one’s growth.

Emerson’s “Self- Reliance” was written in a time where America was breaking away from the European norms and European control. America was used to thinking and conforming to the European way, but when we broke away we had learn how to think and do for ourselves. Emerson wrote on this topic of conformity and learning to think for ourselves because, he soon began to see a problem when we conform to society.

Just imagine how tedious and usual it is to live in one place and do one thing throughout our lives. Instead, as we only live once, we have to be adventurous and free to do the things we want. A few years ago, I have read a book called ‘Anthem’ by Ayn Rand. In this book, the author brings about a society where every person is the same like robots, and people have no right to have something they like and something they pursue to do. They simply just do whatever works the leaders give them. But there was one exceptional person-he was longing to be free and independent. The person has later discovered how unfair it was to live like robots when he was a human, so he escaped from the place and started living on his own. By living on his own, he discovered the world around him and began having his own mind to do things, and being like this made him

Being an independent person can help to be successful in life. It can lead to survival, being the bravest person of the group, And helping others survive. In the novels Night by”Elie Wiesel” and Sold by ”Patricia McCormick” The characters in both novels have something to do with being independent. Eli and his father stuck together and tried to fight their way out of the concentration camp. Lakshmi went to the Happiness House and made a few friends that told her tips about how she can make it through the house but she didn’t follow them, She did what she thought she could. By examining the novels Night and Sold we can see that being an independent person is the key to survival which is important because even if a person is in a difficult

does not mold into the society’s norms, interprets the idea of self-reliance as a lifestyle.

How bitter the words were! If a child never get mother’s acclaim and encouragement, how sorrowful one’s heart feels! Here comes a contrasting comparison of western and Chinese parenting—western parents encourage and praise their child much more often than Chinese parents do. This encouragement helps them create new ideas, independent opinions, developing unique and sparkling characters. Whereas Chinese parents believe in the old saying, “a strict teacher produces outstanding students”, strictness and criticism are important educating guide lines for Chinese parents, which results in obedience and collectivism, compromise, no psyche and no guts to say no. But on the other hand, Chinese do behave better in harsh and high-pressured condition due to their strict training in childhood.

I was born in Hong Kong and moved alone to Taiwan to live with my grandmother when I was 12. I struggled to learn the language, Mandarin, and to live and learn alongside children from a very different culture. I was like some alien from outer space in Taiwan – generating stares but not acceptance. However, by being open minded about both my potential and the potential of this little island, I succeeded in adapting. I spoke back to the television set to practice Mandarin; I read books and watched videos to learn Taiwan's culture, history, and literature; and I helped my fellow classmates in our

This term paper focuses on China-Taiwan relations in terms of One China policy and the Taiwan question. The paper will first provide an overview of the historical background of Beijing-Taipei relations and its ties with the United States. After, we will discuss One China policy and its different interpretations.