Ralph Waldo Emerson: Stepping Out Of The Comfort Zone

During the nineteenth century, American schools have caused a raise of differences towards the method of educating students. In his essay, “Education”, an influential American thinker and writer, Ralph Waldo Emerson recommends the parents to take in consideration for their children’s lives by creating a better teaching in which the students can learn/imply the basic fundamentals on their strive for success by doing it on their own. Emerson emphasizes his claim by encouraging a teaching method that children use their “naturel” by utilizing paradox, metaphors and analogy.

Nature by Ralph Waldo Emerson has a lot to teach about how to respect the earth because it is a mighty force but Nature also teaches what it means to be connected with nature and the feelings that are associated with connection. During my close read of Nature I faced challenges, successes, and a greater appreciation for the writing from a world that is drastically different from the one I live in. One of my biggest struggles while annotating the piece was looking at the big picture and what the paragraph as a whole was telling me. While I am annotating I tend to focus more on the smaller pieces such as the meaning of words and decoding what a sentence is saying. It’s hard to pull back from that and connect the bigger pieces to find what the

"In the woods, we return to reason and faith. There I feel that nothing can befall me in life, - no disgrace, no calamity (leaving me my eyes), which nature cannot repair. Standing on the bare ground, - my head bathed by the blithe air and uplifted into infinite space, - all mean egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eyeball. I am nothing. I see all. The currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part or particle of God."

This also applys when we want to tryout for a sport. The high school softball team is having tryouts next week, the coach is looking to create a team that is willing to learn more than they already know, to try to help them grow together as a team. The high school senior does not like to learn new things, because she believes that she is the best. The softball coach is looking for someone that will help his team not only win, but learn more each year. Therefore, the junior that tried out, will be chosen over the senior. The junior knows that she will only grow from learning new things. On the other hand, some might believe that staying where they are at will help them grow. They say that when doing the same thing multiple times will help them learn from their mistakes and change the outcome. Therefore, this is also helping them grow. But if they are learning from their mistakes, are they not doing more than they already know? This is why learning new things, and changing the way we look at different outcomes will help us grow. Emerson was right, if we as students learn to do more than we have already mastered we will grow

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

This was the battle started with the “shot heard ‘round the world” as Ralph Waldo Emerson observed.

his profession as a pastor in search for vital truth and hope. But his father

In his essay, “Society and Solitude”, Ralph Waldo Emerson depicts basic opinions of the values of society and solitude in everyday life and productivity, and Nathaniel Hawthorne implements and expands upon these fundamental ideas in his narrative, The Scarlet Letter. Though both of these works were produced in the 19th century, they portray a very different setting when illustrating the same values. Emerson expressed his views on the effects of an imbalance of society and solitude and Hawthorne applied aspects of those views to characters to demonstrate the consequences.

Ralph Waldo Emerson gave a speech to the men of the Phi Beta Kappa Society at Cambridge University entitled “The American Scholar” in 1837. The speech focused on the main ideas of transcendentalism as well as how different factors in society affect man’s ability to realize that they are their own individuals. Harold Bloom, a well known literary critic who evaluated topics such as the bible and Shakespeare, believed that Emerson’s writing was the template for all future authors. Bloom believed that adversity allows people to have a deeper understanding of the world. However, Emerson focused on the loss of knowledge in the society due to the misunderstanding of younger generations in his time period while Bloom mainly focused on how Emerson's views on individualism and transcendentalism affected all writing whether admitted or not. Harold Bloom was correct in his critique, “Out of Panic, Self Reliance” published in 2008, when he confirmed Ralph Waldo Emerson's view point in his speech “The American Scholar” (1837) stating that overcoming adversity is an essential part to gaining wisdom and forming self- reliance by comparing it to current political events in order to show once again that Ralph Waldo Emerson was very influential to not only authors but to the overall evolution of man’s thoughts.

As a world, people follow those who they can relate with. Humans are drawn to the

In Experience, Ralph Waldo Emerson writes about the human condition shared by all in his uniquely “Emersonian” perspective. Perhaps one of his most effective works is Experience, an essay on a subject of which Emerson had much “experience” and personal grief. To fully appreciate Emerson, the reader must closely analyze his writing, with both its obvious meaning, and the experience with which he’s writing.

Emerson's "transcendentalism" is essentially a romantic individualism, a philosophy of life for a new people who had overthrown their colonial governors and set about conquering a new continent, in hopes of establishing new and unique views. Though Emerson is not a traditional philosopher, the tendency of his thought is toward inward reflection in which soul and intuition, or inspiration, are fundamental. The new American needed less criticism and a rejuvenated sense of personal inspiration. Taking a practical and democratic, yet philosophic interest in all of nature and in individuals of every walk of life. Emerson stresses the potential for genius and creativity in all

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.

Moreover, there is an importance to understanding the different perspectives and how they are to our advantage. For instance, our wide-ranging different perspectives can in fact build us and make for a better community. When different perspectives come from different "lenses" or "transparent eyeballs" by a humans personal experiences, then many different perspective exist and allow for learning and understanding of the world. When a human has a better understanding of the world “not only enhances all of as human beings, but can also be harnessed for the better good, leading to improved health and quality of life” (Keim). Relating back to the "transparent eye-ball" (1836), Emerson emphasizes that looking and understanding nature in different perspectives,

The theme of individualism is present in several of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s works. It was also his philosophical views on how to live life. He believed that human beings had remarkable capabilities, more than they can possibly identify. With these capabilities a person should govern themselves, not be governed by a society. Emerson also believed that nature played a large role in how man should act and to follow nature’s actions of growing without obstruction (“Nature”). This is why he lead the Transcendentalism movement in the nineteenth century, along with Theodore Parker, Frederic Henry Hedge, Amos Bronson Alcott, Margaret Fuller and Henry David Thoreau (Lewis). This philosophy was not only significant then, it was imperative throughout times in history.