Download Emerson`s Self

Emerson’s Self-Reliance
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Comment on what themes were
discovered after reading the first half
of Self –Reliance.
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What trends were noticed in
Emerson’s style?
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Explanation:
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Emerson states that all people need to brush aside
societal values and materialism in order to focus
on the self.
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Environmental stimuli are nothing but detractors
from harnessing the “true-self” and make people
act insecurely and/or clouds people from the truth.
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Good and bad do not exist unless they sway a
person from his/her path.
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Therefore, people and their causes are hypocritical
as actions do not benefit the self, rather they are
performed for others.
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IRONY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Ask: Does Emerson practice what he
preaches?
Emerson himself is a hypocrite because:
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He vows that God is an oversoul that all are related
to and is manifested in everything. As well, the
mind, self, and God/Oversoul are infinite.
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He leaves the ministry in order to focus on the self.
Conformity is the shroud that covers the true self
and people must protest materialism, society, and
organization.
HOWEVER
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Emerson himself fails to truly follow his own
“philosophical sermon” because he can not truly
rid himself in his belief of organized religion and
the fact that there is a true God.
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The aforementioned is noted by his writing style –
it is almost sermon like in that he is attempting to
make the reader feel guilty in order that he/she will
agree.
Emerson is also extremely insecure and actually
longs for acceptance. Yet he goes about it in a
fashion that the society of the time rejects.
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He truly wants attention and to be accepted so he
attempts to shock society into noticing him.
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Society does not care, really, and they pass Emerson off
as a sort of anomaly that is not to be taken seriously.
Emerson’s ideas are too liberal for the time and only a
small faction of disciples follow in his footsteps,
Thoreau being the most devout.
Emerson’s philosophy of self-reliance is also
realistically impossible.
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If all societies focus on the individuals which
comprise them, then society as a governing unit
can not function.
Imagine a society of screaming 5 yr. olds. What is
the result?
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Complete anarchy!!!!!!
Without conformity, there is no law, government, or
hope that humanity is going to find the goodness in
itself or in others.
Humans are generally selfish, but also torn between the
struggle of moral goodness and evil.
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Conformity keeps humanity, for the most part, in check
and allows society to function.
Without conformity, complete anarchy would arise and
society would eventually
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1. cease to exist as humans would wipe themselves out based
on greed
2. new rules and governments would arise and those who
manipulated the masses are followed.
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So, Emerson is a big whiner who fails to
actually practice what he preaches.
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He is a dreamer in some respects, or a
visionary, but does not have the mental means
to act upon his own philosophy.
Thoreau does.
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Emerson when compared to the hippies of the
1960’s, is really no different.
The hippies were generally yuppies who
whined about the unfairness of the world and
denounced conformity.
They found security, recognition, and
commonality within their small circles.
However, eventually the movement went by
the wayside as conformity reared its head.