Emerson Responce

Alicia Mucciolo

Response Paper

Emerson

        There are a number of authors who have transcended past their own time into our own. However not all are still taught in our high school and college school curriculums. Ralph Waldo Emerson is arguable one of the most profound and influential authors of the 19 century, his works like Self Reliance and Nature are used as the foundation for other famous writers like Henry David Thoreau. The nature of Emerson’s writing demonstrated his ideology, presenting a restless, highly individualistic mind that resented conformity. Self-Reliance speaks to many themes, however some of the strongest are relating to individuality and identity, and the idea of transcendentalism.

        Emerson defines transcendentalism as the belief in living close to nature and understanding the dignity of manual labor. Emerson’s book Nature is a clear example of how he put this into practice. In both Self-Reliance and Nature Emerson emphasizes the spiritual nature between human beings and God. He make the relationship clear when he states everyone’s relationship is between the individual being and God. He follows the belief that human beings are divine in their own right, the exact opposite between the Puritan beliefs.

        In Emerson’s Self-Reliance he uses the theme of transcendentalism to criticize the idea of conformity and its placement in social institutions and the idea of divine unity in nature. He encourages the audience to challenge the social institutions set in place, and to even test their inner voice. An example of this is when Emerson writes, “Every true man is a cause, a country, and an age; requires infinite space and numbers and time fully to accomplish his thought;--and posterity seem to follow his step as a procession” (Emerson, Self-Reliance, 275). The idea of each individual person having their own connection with God is in direct opposite of what he was taught as a minister in Christianity. The Catholic Church always maintained the way for humanity to connect with God was through them, however through Emerson’s Self-Reliance he demonstrates the spiritual and transcendentalism relationship. By considering the emphasis Emerson puts on self-reliance within each individual, he connects this theme with the outside world. “I see the same law working in the nature for conservation and growth. The poise of a planet, the bended tree recovering itself from the strong wind, the vital resources of every vegetable and animal, are also demonstrations of the self-sufficing, and therefore self-relying soul” (Emerson, Self-Reliance, 279). Not only is religion a fundamental theme with Emerson, education and knowledge is as well. Emerson demonstrates that intuitive knowledge and individually derived are unique with every individual. Emerson demonstrates this when he states, “When good is near you, when you have life in yourself,-- it is not by any known or appointed way; you shall not discern the foot-prints of any other; you shall not see the face of man; you shall not hear any name;-- the way, the thought, the good shall be wholly strange and new” (Emerson, Self-Reliance, 278). While Emerson demonstrated examples of the 19th century, the themes of individuality and transcendentalism are presented in our modern society. For example, single mothers who maintain working jobs, women who break away from the sexist cliché and embrace their own sexual nature, businesspersons who start their own enterprises, and college students who make their own way.