Ralph Waldo Emerson's Ideology Of Self Identity

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.

Self Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson, a timeless essay, addresses the lack of dependence from society in the Western Culture. Emerson openly detested and defied the social and religious norms of his time. Throughout the work, he discussed the strength and benefits of relying on one's own opinions and choice; late he describes the ideal man who embodies his principles of determination, courage, and self-assurance. Four years later, Frederick Douglass released his narrative of a journey from slavery to freedom in the North. This moving memoir takes the readers along for the ride, as Douglass retells his experiences from the past. In the Narrative, Douglass’ s actions epitomize the principles Emerson deliberated in his own text. Frederick Douglass embodies the ideal man of society, Emerson thoroughly praises, as he defies the boundaries of slavery and creates new opportunities for himself.

As an advocate for both solitary contemplation and social activism, two conflicting ideals, Emerson was able to justify his often lack of political activism by referencing Self-Reliance, written in 1841. In Reliance, Emerson writes, “A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light which flashes across his mind from within, more than the lustr of the firmament of bards and sages.” A clear example of narcissism, Emerson states the importance of listening to oneself rather than anyone else. Later, Emerson wrote, “Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the

During the Transcendentalist movement, Ralph Waldo Emerson’s famous quote in his booklet, Nature, gave a lot of insight on the identity of the human race. His quote, “A man is a god in ruins” indicates a sense of the “fallen” nature, and really emphasizes our faults and our limits, and many authors during this time person also seemed to follow this philosophy. In Ralph Waldo Emerson’s other work, Self-Reliance, he is also able to capture this same essence from text to text. In addition to Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville all follow the same philosophy in their own respective texts. The reader is able to see a common theme consistently throughout Self-Reliance, Economy (in Walden), The Artist of the Beautiful and Bartleby the Scrivener and Benito Cereno. Throughout each of these texts, the reader essentially focuses on how the nature of the human race focuses on how we are more than ordinary stone ruins, but we are lesser than Gods. The optimism of Emerson’s quote exploring the nature of the human person is depicted in their own way and different writing style throughout all of these different texts.

I believe that, essentially, life consists of a series of choices. A grouping of these choices in one direction or another makes us who we are, and ultimately we have control over our lives. What makes one person different from another is his own set of choices. When going through life’s motions, we develop certain worldviews and ideas and values to live by. We develop an opinion of what makes a person “great.” In the well-known essay “Self-Reliance”, Ralph Waldo Emerson provides a beautiful way of approaching these choices, and he reveals a very inspiring set of values centralized around going through life answering only to yourself. I love the way Emerson evaluates the society we live

Transcendentalist writers believed that individualism positively contributed to society. This idea is seen throughout the writings of this time in many ways. Transcendentalist writers believed that conformity made society bland, and everyone would benefit from individualism. They also showed that following one’s own dreams instead of the common dreams is what leads to achievement in life. Additionally, transcendentalism represented the belief of individualism being the key to enlightenment. Overall, transcendentalist writers used their works to convey the message that individualism made for a more diverse and interesting world, led to true happiness, and opened up one’s mind.

In the essay Self Reliance, Ralph Waldo Emerson addressed the topic of originality and uniqueness to depict the idea that these are the qualities that make people great. Emerson stated that “We but half express ourselves, and are ashamed of that divine idea which each of us represent” in order to argue that each person has a uniqueness because their environments is unique (Emerson 2). The quote infers that every person in society has an ability to possess a unique idea. Every person has a unique idea, which means that every person can become a free thinker. Those who do not act on their thoughts and ideas due to societal rules lose the chance to become unique. Emerson believed that “Society is a wave. The wave moves onward, but the water of which it is composed does not”, meaning something sparks society to do something, everyone starts doing it but why they do it is lost over time (Emerson 20). The wave of society represents the masses and the water that makes up the wave are the individuals in society. Every person has an ability to possess a divine thought but cannot ferment it because of societal restraints (the wave). Due to the influence of society, one lacks the strength to act on their original thought and follows the crowd. Martin Luther acted on his original thought but thousands of people adopted his thoughts, even though the reasons for his regional thought are no longer present. Instead of creating and following their own ideas, they adopted Luther’s instead. In society, many people follow and imitate well established beliefs, thus leading to the lack of divine thought. In the reading, Emerson came to a conclusion that all people have divine thoughts but cannot act on them because of societal influences.

Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay Self- Reliance accurately claims that people’s sense of individualism is heavily influenced by the world’s opinion; his argument is viable because individualism tends to be changing due to the fact that people are influenced too easily in modern society.

Pauline: Have I gone blind? Am I dreaming? I'm sure it's not Emerson, The Ralph Waldo Emerson sitting outside my porch, looking straight at me.

Emerson supports individualism by arguing the importance of thinking for yourself rather than conforming to other people’s ideas. This is made evident in the first few sentences of his essay, “To believe in your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men, - that is genius.” Thereby saying those who abandon personal instinct and choose to rely on others opinion, abandon creativity by denying the world their impression based on their own individual experience. He argues Moses, Plato, and Milton should be honored because they spoke what they thought, and did not use the books, traditions, or words of others. However, very few people do this today, instead “he dismisses without notice his thought, because it is his.” This absence of self-reliance does

The Blossoming of Individualism Individualism can be shown through various ways. People can express their individuality through clothes, music taste, food choices, political viewpoints, and even choice of movies. Everyone is not just born with their own style or uniqueness, it grows overtime. In fact, the practice of being an individual, also known as individualism, did not just appear at once. It grew over time as well.

The society doesn’t have the right to suppress who we are or what are we meant to be. Every invention ever created was developed by that one person that didn’t follow standards. Emerson called them “genius” for trusting and believing in themselves rather than what society imposes people to believe in. As said in the essay the first step for individuality is trust yourself because you are the only one who knows if you follow the individualist ideas or the things society wants you to believe in. “Whoso would be a man must be nonconformist” A person that knows what he is worth will seek his own thoughts. Many famous persons were misunderstood but they believed in themselves and continued doing what they thought was right.

During the 19th century Romantic period, an intellectual movement known as Transcendentalism emerged. Individualism was one of the fundamental ideas of Transcendentalists. This new group believed that the individual's purity would be corrupted by organized religious and political parties. Literature in this period was affected by tenets of Transcendentalism. Many of the authors who believed in this movement expressed their ideas in their works. Transcendentalist writers supported individualism by advocating self-reliance, nonconformity, and resistance to unjust government.

5. “Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson was a central figure in the social movement of transcendentalism around the mid 1800s. Transcendentalism is the idea of individualism and the belief that people should trust themselves to be their own authority and not confine themselves to the conformity of society. Throughout his works, Emerson uses ideas such as, individualism, conformity, nonconformity, and persuasive ideas to express his beliefs. During the 1800s to speak out against traditional thought was a rare and disdained action, but it didn’t avert Emerson from elaborating his positions on individual matters. He wrote many famous texts that are still relevant today, but in his work “Self-Reliance”, Ralph Waldo Emerson uses powerful language to produce a candid tone that persuades the reader to flout conformity within our society; in hopes of empowering people to become more outspoken and not sit in the shadows of social expectations.