Analysis Of Self-Reliance By Ralph Waldo Emerson

Self-Reliance was a masterful piece by, author, Ralph Waldo Emerson. It embodied the man’s belief that every person should live to the beat of their own drum, or do as they would do. He didn’t think that people, if they were to truly flourish, were to follow the rantings on of others or follow the herd. He believed that the human spirit was something to be embraced by the owner of said spirit, not to be locked away behind the walls brought up by popular culture and those who find the spirit’s ideals obscure. Many could find the contents of this man’s remarkable passage inspirational to be you not what others see that you should be. The individual could be bestown the courage to pierce the veil. These reasons and many more, trust me, are just
some of the reasons that I believe that others should read his story. His story of following yourself as the leader of their own army. Now, onto my responses to the listed quotes.
“There comes a time in every man’s life when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide…”. Every person in their life will come to a point and ask themselves, ”why follow the crowd?”. I find this to be a true statement that, even though I myself have never followed the crowd and therefore haven’t had this thought. Now, onto the second quote. “Trust thyself, every heart vibrates to that iron string”. This quote is basically saying that follow your heart and you find what you seek, or something like that. This quote to me was a bit hard to decipher, due to the part at the end. “…Every heart vibrates to that iron string.” This confuses me because in a piece about embracing your own individuality, this seems to be saying that everyone follows the same path, which contradicts that article. That maybe just me misinterpreting it, but oh well. Now onto the third listed quote on the paper. “Whoso would be a man, must be a nonconformist”. What this quote is saying is that to be human is to break the societal boundaries. Man was made to follow its own path, that is what sets us apart from animals. The ability to individualize greatly from the common
masses. Now it is time to respond to quote four of six.
“It is easy in the world to live after the world’s opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps his perfect sweetness the independence of solitude”. This quote is saying that only the great rise above social stereotypes. That to be truly enigmatic you must stray from social similarity. This is, so far my favorite quote in this assignment. We’re in the home stretch now, quote five of six. “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds”. Consistency is what holds us back. The weak minded form the crowd, form the popular culture, and form so-called normality. Those who can break free of the binds of consistency are the ones whose minds have come to the thought that they can be different. It is then that we come to see our true self come into fruition. Finally, the last quote. “To be great is to be misunderstood”. This quote, this final quote, is just in summary to all the points I have brought up so far in this assignment. That all we need to succeed in all aspects of life is a keen sense of our own individuality. And a freedom of our inner selves. Because for us to trupy be free we must release our inner
selves. And now, for my thoughts on Mr. Emerson’s biography. Emerson, with his time as a minister, saw how following one belief was not how all should live if they were to be happy. He thought that everyone needed to follow what they believe to be fully at the furthest reaches of their abilities. This is what Emerson believed and what many others should too.