Emerson Thoreau Individualism

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Detra Damskov
Instructor Kym Snelling
American Literature I
20 January 2015
Individualism in Emerson and Thoreau’s writing Individualism is one of the main tenants of Transcendentalism. According to transcendentalist thought, the goal of individualism is to ignite our innate thoughts, inspired by the divinity that is nature. Consequently, individualism is in direct opposition to the average person’s propensity to form thoughts reliant upon other people’s value systems and views. Both authors caution their audience against blind respect and adherence to empty laws and societal norms as they see many of these laws as arbitrary and prejudiced, and see their very existence as nothing more than antiquated customs devoid of any real meaning. While transcendentalist thinkers, Ralph Waldo Emerson and David Thoreau both enthusiastically venerate this notion of individualism, there exists a subtle difference in the application of their shared belief system.
Thoreau essentially takes Emerson’s passionate credence of Individualism and brings it to its full and active fruition, especially as it relates to governmental resistance.
Ralph Waldo Emerson’s call to individualism speaks predominantly of an introspective and introverted intellectual and spiritual struggle to reform society from within the human psyche. His philosophy is not aimed at an extensive or encompassing social movement, but instead is intended as a individualized change in each respective man’s thoughts and perceptions. Emerson’s philosophy has less to do with action and more to do with with a

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purposefully profound deliberation and adoption of truth and the subsequent changes of perception which consequently arise in the heart of the individual thinking man. He sees individualism as an intellectual and esoteric trust and cultivation of the collective human intuition accessible to all human beings as a result of rigorous and honest rumination. This reflective pilgrimage into one’s own mind is meant to be a self exploratory journey leading one to a freedom of self and an understanding of the ever present godship which is found in nature and in man. Emerson writes, Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string. Accept the place the divine providence has found for you, the society of your contemporaries, the connection of events. Great men have always done so, and confided themselves childlike to the genius of their age, betraying their perception that the absolutely trustworthy was seated at their heart, working through their hands, predominating in all their being. ( Emerson 270)
Emerson asserts that absolute trust in one’s thoughts is essential to human fruition. He believes that the individual can accomplish a totality of mind and life if they only listen to their own instincts in an voracious and authentic manner.
While Henry David Thoreau certainly agrees with Emerson’s philosophy, he focuses on a more active social transformation with emphasis on the avoidance of government power over the individual. Thoreau says, “ Government is best when it governs not at all.” (Thoreau 964)
His emphasis lies in individual’s unrelenting search for truth. This search, in his estimation, renders government superfluous. Thoreau calls his readers to Emerson’s ideology but he does not stop there. He sees passive resistance as the natural fulfillment of man’s intellectual and spiritual individualist ideals. Thoreau writes,

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If the injustice is part of the necessary friction of the machine of government, let it go, let it go: perchance it will wear smooth,—certainly the machine will wear out. If the injustice has a spring, or a pulley, or a rope, or a crank, exclusively for itself, then perhaps you may consider whether the remedy will not be worse than the evil; but if it is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law. Let your life be a counter­ friction to stop the machine.
(Thoreau 970)
He intends to inspire his readers to civil disobedience as relates to oppression in society and hence takes Emerson’s views to their fullness of action within the world.
While, Emerson’s philosophy of introspection and individualistic inquiry serves as a solid foundation for Thoreau’s resistance to governmental transgression, it is Thoreau’s call to action that differentiates these two writers. Both Emerson and Thoreau are staunch believers in autonomy, professing an individualistic defiance of intrusions caused by the human penchant for social norms and historical ideations. Additionally, Emerson and Thoreau both argue for a personal communion with the natural world, and accordingly with its intrinsic and essential divinity. They see this communion with natural divinity as indispensable to the pursuit and attainment of knowledge of oneself and awareness of one’s personal and universal role as a human being. However it is only in Thoreau’s call to action, that we are able to see the true power of Emerson’s wisdom come to its crowning realization.

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Works Cited
Emerson, Ralph Waldo. “Self­Reliance”. The Norton Anthology: American Literature
Volume A. Ed. Julia Reidhead. W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. New York, New York.
(269­286).

Thoreau, Henry David. “Resistance to Civil Government ”. The Norton Anthology:
American Literature Volume A. Ed. Julia Reidhead. W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. New York,
New York. (964­­979).