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Emerson And Individuality

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How does Emerson define individuality in paragraph one of Self Reliance? In the first paragraph of Self Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson, he defines his individuality by interpreting the true meaning of emotions and perspectives of other writers and the importance of being authentic. Emerson also discourages following behind other writers in their perspectives and encourages people to develop their own opinions. Throughout the first paragraph, Emerson speaks of the sentiment of feelings and the impact it as on its readers and the importance of speaking your own thoughts and words. Emerson tells us that we are to speak our latest conviction, and then we will be socially understood and respected. In the writings, Emerson also encourages people to pay more attention to their self, and one’s own thoughts as they come to mind because as we dismiss them they always return as with an isolated …show more content…

Yet he dismisses without notice his thought, because it is his. In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts and: they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty”. In the previously quoted text, Emerson starts out by specifically identifying “man” as the subject and gives the reader a sense of imagery describing the brief moment when a thought comes to mind and he tells the reader to focus more on themselves rather than the thoughts and feelings of other poets and wise men. Emerson begins to downplay the character [man] by saying he dismisses everything that comes to mind, treating himself as unworthy, and disregarding all emotions and thoughts of himself as if they are not valued. At the end, Emerson talks about the time when we find ourselves relating to great works of previous thoughts of one’s own self and we pity ourselves when they come back around for not acting own

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