Thomas Paine And Emerson Comparison

In “Self Reliance”, Emerson discusses being one’s own person and not allowing society to mold someone like a piece of clay; “Trust thyself” are the exact words he used. Trusting oneself means it is okay to be different if one wants or chooses to be different. It

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.

In a paragraph, write your idea of self-reliance. Do you agree or disagree with Emerson? Why?

     Emerson’s writing focused on nonconformity and individuality. In his essay "Self-Reliance," he wrote, "Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind," and, "Whoso would be a man, must be a nonconformist."

In Ralph Waldo Emerson's essay "Self-Reliance," he defends the personality traits that every creative human being possesses and a person's intellectual independence, which enables him to surpass the achievements of previous generations. Emerson explains how most of society is made up of conformists, people that simply conform to a past technique created by earlier innovators. Against being a conformist, Emerson chooses to support being a creator, or a person who has the courage to trust himself and disagree with society's beliefs. During earlier centuries, society was mostly grouped together in mobs, but Emerson challenges this trend and suggests individuality. Emerson's ideas of self-reliance connect

Ralph Waldo Emerson							I am writing this essay on the beliefs and thoughts of Ralph Waldo Emerson on the subjects of individuality, society, government, technology, and spirituality.

Another piece of evidence for this belief is, “It is easy in a world to live after the world’s opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude” (Emerson 937). This proves that Emerson believed that it was easier for an individual to follow the example of the men who came before them; however, the world cannot advance if individuals only repeat what others have done. At the same time, Emerson is saying that an individual who follows their own thoughts will live happily among the larger population; however, they will maintain their solidarity. Emerson believed that individuals who do not conform to the ways of the world and follow their own path will prosper.

The Pursuit of Self-Reliance Emerson’s work “Self-Reliance” impresses on the reader the need for non-conformity. In the passage, he explores how such independence is found in youth, arguing that the dependence on self requires the openness of mind, “being whole” (Emerson 63), untainted by standards and expectations that come with maturity. The passage can seen as an advocate for the idea that “life is for itself” (64), and also serves as advice towards attaining an attitude of non-conformity. Arguably, it adds to the text as a whole by emphasizing the message of the author, and also creating a deeper understanding through the use of common representation.

To him distractions served nothing more than to bog down the mind. A simple life, in essence, was the key to becoming an enlightened individual. Emerson goes so far as to implore his readers to “let our simplicity judge them, and our docility to our own law demonstrate the poverty of nature and fortune beside our native riches” (Emerson). It is to be our own simplicity that governs our judgments, letting an inner latent richness inside ourselves dictates how to live. Thoreau, during his time on his property, captures the sentiment of Emerson’s message in his book with an anecdote set on Independence Day.

Emerson considered individuality as doing whatever he wanted and ignoring what the people think, which we can find in his words: "What I must do is all that concerns me, not

Emerson brought to focus areas in which people have come to lack individuality, on that account, his idea that Self-reliant individuals were a necessity in this world was born. Religion; which fears and lacks individual creativity, Culture; which devalues individualism and Art; that he pointed out has merely developed into repetitive “imitation.”These are the crucial aspects that Emerson wanted to point out to his readers. “We are like children who repeat by rote the sentences of grandames and tutors.” Emerson accentuates that the way to live isn't to grow into an imitator, life becomes bland and dull once an individual loses his passion for being individualistic. His philosophy stands on the grounds that

“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment” Ralph Waldo Emerson. Individualism really started to make an appearance in the 19th century. Individualism in America became part of the “core American ideology by the 19th century”.In a way, America is an individualist culture.Compared to the 19th-century Individualism in America has evolved. Individualism can be found in social media, American fiction, and music. Authors like Emerson, Benjamin Franklin and, Anne Bradstreet encourage one to be true to who they are as an individual.

Ralph Waldo Emerson declares in "Self-Reliance" there is a higher merit we can ascribe and aspire to. These merits in man’s greatness are attributed not to conformity, but rather to originality. Nonconformity and discontinuity in a man’s approach to life are the doctrines advocated by Emerson in his work, while inwardly searching for personal truth. Although, Emerson employs a discontinuous literary style in his work, he revels in his lack of continuity to further broadcast his ideology of nonconformity and inconsistency. The lack of formal structure in the work enhances rather than inhibits the reader’s grasp of the literature. An examination of the work, however, suggests that nonconformity and discontinuity are the

Ralph Waldo Emerson, (1803-1882), one of America 's most influential authors and thinkers. A Unitarian minister, he left his only pastorate, Boston 's Old North Church (1829-32), because of doctrinal disputes. On a trip to Europe Emerson met Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth, whose ideas, along with those of Plato, the Neo-Platonist, Asian mystics, and Swedenborg, strongly influenced his philosophy. Returning home (1835), he settled in Concord, Mass., which he, Margaret Fuller, Thoreau, and others made a center of Transcendentalism He stated the movement 's main principles in Nature (1836), stressing the mystical unity of nature. A noted lecturer, Emerson called for American intellectual independence from Europe in his Phi Beta Kappa address at Harvard ("The American Scholar,"1837 In an address at the Harvard divinity school (1838), he asserted that redemption could be found only in one 's own soul and intuition. Emerson developed transcendentalist themes in his famous Journal (kept since his student days at Harvard), in the magazine The Dial, and in his series of Essays (1841, 1844). Among the best known of his essays are "The Over-Soul,"

During the time “The American Scholar” was written, United States was undergoing a period in time where even though independent from other countries, people’s beliefs where still under European influence. Freedom of thought did exist, freedom of speech as well; but not a single person advocated for this right. Most where afraid of doing such a thing, and that is where Ralph Waldo Emerson emerged. His speech originally meant only to be heard by a small amount of people, ended up being published and eventually was heard through the whole country. The thoughtful tone Emerson put into the speech made the message it was trying to transmit clearer to the audience. Emerson found himself engulfed in unpopular beliefs that not any person could see through. The masses could not see through the thick fog that obstructed their intellectual behavior from developing. The masses had been influenced by others beliefs to the point they could barely develop their own criteria. Emerson took such a thoughtful attitude that he went ahead and even explained in his speech that the basis of human intellect lies on something that looks so simple as nature, but at the end its more complex than what it looks like. The need for intellectual independence was something Emerson needed to communicate the society about.