Preview

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1047 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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.

I think that Emerson believes that every person should be as much as individual as they can. Be who you are on the inside, don't try to be like everyone else. Don't worry about fitting in, if someone is a real friend, they will like you for who you are, real friends won't dump you for being yourself.

When Emerson says "Insist on yourself; never imitate." he is saying that you should act like you are on the inside; don't try to be like someone else. Be your own person and strive to be as different from everyone else as much as you can. Emerson said that your mind is your own, and no one can touch it. You can think what you want to think, and no one can change that. He describes this belief in the quote "Nothing is at last sacred, but the integrity of your own mind." People can mess with every other part of you, but your mind they can't reach.

Emerson is quoted as saying "My life is for itself and not for a spectacle." I think that he means that each and every person has their own life to live and that they shouldn't devote their time to worrying about what other people are doing. You have enough to worry about with what's going on in your own lives.

Emerson believes that when you express what you are feeling on the inside, most people will be able to relate with what you are feeling. He tells us this in the quote "Speak your latent conviction, and it shall be the universal sense." Everyone will be able to understand what you are going through in one way or another.

Emerson really believes that society is bad, whichever way you look at it. Don't listen to what society has to say, do things on your own free will how you want to do them.

Society tells you how to act, how to dress, how to look, and how to live. You

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    One of the most prominent aspects of transcendentalism in Dead Poet Society is non-conformity. In “Self-reliance” by Ralph Waldo Emerson, whom is a transcendentalist author, he converses about conformity. According to Emerson, conformity takes away a person's individualism. This quote from Emerson’s “Self Reliance” explains his thoughts on conformity, “Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members…. The virtue in most request is conformity. Self-reliance is its aversion. It loves not realities and creators, but names and customs” (Emerson Self-Reliance). This quote reveals that according to Emerson, conforming is the worst thing about society because it takes…

    • 715 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the two essays “Self Reliance” and “Civil Disobedience, written Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau respectively, the two 19th century transcendentalists speak about what it means to be an individual and how society can be changed for the better. While both authors stress the need for nonconformity and individuality, the essays differ on the details.…

    • 327 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    From Education Questions

    • 761 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The reader attention is drawn and kept to think about a certain issue that Emerson…

    • 761 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    He writes,”There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide” (20-23). Envy is ignorance. With this, Emerson is saying if anyone is to envy their peers, they are ignorant. Those type of people are clueless to the real meaning of their own lives. In the case of Miley Cyrus, she does not envy other artists. She is exactly who she wants to be and she is not jealous of who the other artists are. No, she is not perfect, nor does she pretend to be; however, she is not ignorant. She knows exactly who she is. Imitation is suicide. Here, Emerson expresses, if someone attempts to imitate the actions or ideas of another, it's killing who they are. Emerson believes that each individual should be his or her own person, supporting the concept of individualism. Cyrus agrees that people should not pretend to be someone they are not, just like she had to pretend to be Hannah Montana. When one imitates someone else, he or she killing his or her own…

    • 1638 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Education and Emerson

    • 1336 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Some ways Emerson’s advice is appropriate to a child’s first teacher and his/her parents is the advice of motherly guidance or a guiding hand. A hand that does not punish harshly, rather a hand that encourages a child to do things, not bad things, but encourage a child to think for him/herself, his is some advice that I think Emerson gives out to teachers and parents.…

    • 1336 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Dive by Eyedea & Abilities- Aside from being an awesome and thought provoking song, this track opens up the ideas of Emerson’s Self- Reliance for me pretty well. The song talks about how someone goes out to look for the meaning of life and existence, rather than seeking it from within. The person in the song goes insane over time, and gets further and further away from the truth the harder they look for it. This personifies the idea that seeking outside of one’s self will not lead to true knowledge and wisdom, a totally Emerson idea.…

    • 964 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Into The Wild Essay

    • 886 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Ralph Emerson believed in a moderate balance between individual nonconformity and broader societal concerns. McCandless would often connect with his literature such as his book Nature since he mentions the quote “To speak truly, few adult persons can see nature. Most persons do not see the sun. At least they have a very superficial seeing. The sun illuminates only the eye of he man, but shines into the eye and the heart of the child.” (Emerson 29) In this quote McCandless helps us understand that he was tired of modern society and that he was truly happy in the wilderness and that person who implanted that idea was most indeed Emerson. McCandless wasn’t simply a fool exposing himself to unnecessary danger, McCandless was actually a individual trying to discover…

    • 886 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Relying on one’s self, perceived through the eyes of Ralph Waldo Emerson, is seemingly the only way to show a man’s true genius and goodness to society. Transcendentalism, continually associated with Emerson and his essay “Self-reliance”, announces how the belief in one’s self and one’s ideals pushes away society’s conformity nature, and creates new ideas and questions. Throughout Emerson’s essay, he preaches for society to break away from traditional values, maintain open-minds, and embrace change without unnecessary contradiction. Emerson discusses all of these aspects by metaphorically comparing man’s freedom to understandable objects/situations, alluding to religion, and analyzing the relationship between man’s mind and nature.…

    • 763 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Mike Rose

    • 2057 Words
    • 9 Pages

    Ralph Waldo Emerson, in his piece, “Self Reliance”, claims that in order to become great and redefine knowledge on must challenge the conventional wisdom of the time with his own unique ideas. Emerson supports his claim through the use of examples of great thinkers such as Plato and Socrates and how they challenged the thinking of their day. His purpose is to inspire the audience to be individual and to avoid society’s stereotypes in order to develop new, better ideas on our own. His audience in this piece is young adults who are not yet corrupted by the will of society and conformity. (C3)…

    • 2057 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Ralph Waldo Emerson was an American writer who believed in living as a non-conformist. His writings were admired greatly by Thoreau, who considered himself a disciple of Emerson. For Thoreau and Emerson, non-conformism embodied the necessity for living an authentic and unique life.…

    • 947 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Self Reliance Paper

    • 691 Words
    • 3 Pages

    a) The claim that Emerson effectively advances is that humans should not conform to society, but rather they should think for themselves and believe in what they do. He writes, “To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men, - that is genius.” This quote supports Emerson’s main argument that each person should think for themselves and to not just accept what is written in a history or literary book. Emerson plays on the reader’s pathos, or emotions, by saying, “Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.” This statement appeals to the reader because Emerson is creating a bond between his words and the reader by relating to the audience on a personal level and telling the audience to trust them. Emerson uses logic by stating, “Who so would be a man must be a nonconformist.” Emerson feels that to be a man, one must not conform to the format set out by…

    • 691 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Finally individualism is shown in a romantic form in Emerson self reliance. Emerson believes that the individual can achieve whatever it wants.”“Insist on yourself; never imitate. Your own gift you can present every moment with the cumulative force of a whole life's cultivation; but of the adopted talent of another you have only an extemporaneous half possession. That which each can do best, none but his Maker can teach…

    • 532 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Emerson and Thoreau attacked the dominant religious, political, and cultural values of American society in order to make people aware that they are more important than everything is, including government and society. According to Emerson, society is a barrier against the individuality of its members; and he continued: "Society is a joint-stock company, in which the members agree, for the better securing of his bread to each shareholder, to surrender the liberty and culture of the eater. The virtue in most request is conformity. Self-reliance…

    • 1365 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    One of the primary issues that Emerson tried to convey was that one must follow what they believe is true for themselves and not listen to what other people think. He states, "It is easy in the 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 perfect sweetness the independence of solitude(Emerson 151)." One of the definitions of the word "world" is "human society." The word "opinion" means "a view, judgment, or appraisal formed in the mind about a particular matter." By putting these words together, Emerson is implying that the "world 's opinion" is the general point of view accepted by most of society. Emerson also uses the word, "solitude" which means, "the quality or state of being alone or remote from society." By also using the word "solitude" in this sentence, he shows a contrast between the majority (society), and the individual. What Emerson suggests is that if one can live in a world full of people who think a certain way because they were taught to believe that way, but still hold your own ground and follow what you believe, you are a great person.…

    • 1322 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Society has been and always will be seen as a negative force in the eyes of millions. Cookie Cutter society influences individuals to lose self and conform to the ways of “normal” society. Many writers and leaders, like Waldo Ralph Emerson, Frederick Douglass, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, saw this problem and used their resources to fight to bring these issues to light. Through their writings they argued that true individualism cannot be found without having the liberty to do so.…

    • 740 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics