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Writers of the Late Romantic Period


Emerson proposes that society seeks conformity, but in order to be a self-reliant individual, one must be an inconsistent nonconformist:.
             Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members. 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 is an aversion. It loves not realities and creators, but names and customs. Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist. (Baym 271).
             Emerson repeats the words "I must be myself" in order to emphasize the importance of individuality even when society seeks to produce puppets (Baym 280). He also stresses the importance of diligently working alone in order to improve the world around him. Emerson's desire in "Self-Reliance" is for man to shape society, not for society to shape man. .
             One of the most influential pieces of literature that Ralph Waldo Emerson composed is Nature. This book, which was published anonymously in 1836, became somewhat of a manifesto among the transcendentalists. It received praise from many Europeans, but because of the unconventional ideas that are expressed in it, Nature was unpopular in America at the time (Baym 212). In Nature, Emerson challenges the accepted enlightenment views and declares that nature speaks "directly to the self, [and] to the individual mind and soul" (Ruland 119). In the first chapter of Nature, which is cleverly titled, "Nature," Emerson describes his experience and how it makes him feel:.
             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 eye-ball. I am nothing. I see all. The currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part or particle of God. (Baym 217).


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