Emerson, considered the father of the American Literary Renaissance, wrote many essays to ultimately change the societal values surrounding him. In "Self Reliance," Emerson conveys his philosophical idea that every individual has their own individual genius speaking universal truths. However this tends to be a hard to achieve with society imposing conformity, traditions, and institutions on society. "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"(19). Emerson values individuality and believed that thinking for one's self and trusting original ideas, help reach a universal truth that will ultimately benefit society as a whole. Thoreau, Whitman, Dickson, and Frederick Douglass, and Hawthorne's writings all have an "Emersonian" essence of self-reliance and individual genius by conveying themes of individuality and non-conformity.
Similar to Emerson, Thoreau dislikes institutions and promotes non-conformity. He believes the government stands in the way of individuality because the majority, instead of the individual thinker, makes decisions. Thoreau takes Emerson's "Self Reliance" philosophy further by becoming an activist while following his conscious or individual thoughts. An example is Thoreau protesting slavery using Civil Disobedience, "If one HONEST man, in this State of Massachusetts, ceasing to hold slaves, were actually to withdraw from this co partnership, and be locked up in the county jail therefore, it would be the abolition of slavery in America"(9). Thoreau encourages disobeying unjust laws in order to change them. Eventually, he stops paying his poll tax for six years and is imprisoned. Acting as an individual by disobeying unjust laws is what will change the laws. When the individual follows its conscious, or what Emerson would call "individual genius," the universal truth would be apparent that unjust laws should not be followed.
The idea of the soul is evident in and greatly influences religion and faith. ... Emerson believed that God was forever influencing, but not forcing, man to do what is right. Constantly mentioning "God" in his writings, Emerson's beliefs were greatly influenced by religion. ... Emerson writes of the soul being the influence of God. ... We are never away from the influence of the soul. ...
Emerson begins the passage by stating, "The next great influence into the spirit of the scholar is the mind of the Past.... Emerson also spoke of the many great authors of the past. ... According to Emerson, however, writers are no more than men. ... One such idea Emerson covered was the necessity of creativity. ... Emerson wrote, "But none is quite perfect....
"(296) According to Emerson, the next influence on the scholar is the mind of the past, where he uses books to convey his ideas. ... "(298) But, Emerson does not encourage people to be genius because the "Genius is always the sufficiently enemy of the genius by over-influence... The action of the scholar is important to Emerson. ... "(299) Emerson wants the scholar to learn but question everything. ... "(300) Emerson also places a value on action. ...
The two preeminent American authors of the 19th century, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Frederick Douglass, each criticized Christianity as it was practiced in the United States. ... Emerson feels the Church has abandoned the common man by bombarding him with majestic tales and supernatural events that no one has done or witnessed for ages. ... Emerson's address may have been interpreted as a direct threat to organized religion. ... Emerson's address, though, did not end up minimizing the importance of the church. Instead it became a significant document for the Unitarian Church and a pie...
Ralph Waldo Emerson once spoke these exact words, and their meaning still applies to today's life. ... Children are easily influenced by the world around them. ... Teenagers are even more easily influenced by the media. ... Adults can also be influenced by others. ... It can be hard trying to live by Emerson's quote. ...
"Emerson's moral doctrines could not sustain Thoreau for long," Worster concludes, "for they were aspiring branches that had no roots to support them. ... I begin with Emerson's exploration of the nature of metonymy in his later work to locate Emerson's poetics of nature writing beyond Nature. ... Emerson's "metonymy," I argue, figures a more empirical, if not ecological, way of thinking about writing and writing about thinking. ... Not unlike Thoreau's work, Emerson's writing in natural philosophy moves toward what we will come to think of as an ecology of mind. ...
During Emerson's era, one of the greatest influences on a scholar was the book, which had both indispensable and dangerous qualities. ... (Emerson, 297). ... Another positive influence of books, according to Emerson, is that they created a cumulative knowledge by passing knowledge on from generation to generation. ... (Emerson, 297) Emerson refers to these people as the book-learned class, orbookworms.? ... Television has positively influenced the scholar by inciting his or her imagination. ...
