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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 5 page paper on this famous essay by Ralph Waldo Emerson. The paper provides a careful and thorough explication of the main points of the essay, concluding that like plants and animals, man carries within him the seeds of his own essence and his own divinity, and this essence must be expressed. Bibliography lists one source.
Page Count:
5 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_Selfreli.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
that all humanity is united through a kind of common consciousness; humanity is one with nature; and nature is one with God. Truth, to Emerson, is the expression of spiritual
or personal insights rather than a rational deduction from premises provided by history and science. In his essay "Self-Reliance", Emerson sets forth his theory that most people are afraid
of their own opinions -- not only of exercising their own opinions, but even of having them. Due to a lack of self-confidence, they fear that whatever they think of
could not possibly be worthy, and therefore they constantly look to some outside agent or agency, whether it be the church, the government, or someone they perceive to be an
expert, to guide them in all matters of opinion or action. Emerson points out that "The highest merit we ascribe to Moses, Plato, and Milton is that they set at
naught books and traditions, and spoke not what [other] men [thought], but what they thought" (Emerson, 59). Forestalling arguments that this was because Moses, Plato, and Milton were uncommonly wise
men, Emerson postulates that what these wise men had to say may not have been any more earth-shattering than what passes through the minds of ordinary people every day; its
simply that Moses, Plato and Milton had the self-confidence to express themselves, which ordinary people do not. Ordinary people, Emerson observes, are too eager to conform, because its easier. But
it is also spiritual suicide, because to conform to the dictates of someone elses nature is to kill your own. Emerson insists that "whoso would be a man, must be
a nonconformist" (Emerson, 62), urging his readers to follow the example of children, who express themselves without fear of societys recrimination. This is not to say that society does not
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