Ralph Waldo Emerson Research Paper

Transcendentalism was an American literary movement that started in the early nineteenth century. A very famous transcendentalist writer was Ralph Waldo Emerson. Ralph was the central figure of the movement that brought about the movement with one of his publishing titled “Self Reliance”. He lecture about the importance of individuality. Ralph Waldo Emerson stress the importance of nonconformity by talking about the individual, famous figures of history who did not conform to their surroundings and how people will try to force conformity upon you. Initially, Ralph speaks about nonconformity by emphasizing the individual. The Writer expresses, “To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true

Ralph explains, “Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood” (Emerson online). The Name of the people aforementioned had a great sense of themselves and believed what they truly felt even though they did not believe in the society’s norm. By never losing sight of who they were, they managed to accomplish great feats and became engraved throughout history. Ralph states, “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 with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.”(Emerson online). To be able to retain oneself while everyone in public share contradicting beliefs shows great sense of self by not conforming to public and social beliefs. When no one is around it is easier to think more independently since peer pressure of what other people believe will not affect one’s perspective as much. Overall, Ralph believes that the great people of history are great because they did not conform to society’s norms and

Ralph acknowledges, “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.”(Emerson online). A lot of people like the simple minded man who does as he is told with no objection. Simple minded men who are unable to think for themselves are great to boss around without an ounce of doubt that disobedience will occur because they lack the independence needed to stand up for themselves. Ralph suggest, “It is the harder, because you will always find those who think they know what is your duty better than you know it.” (Emerson online). In society there will always be someone who feels that they know what is best for everyone and will try to assert their will upon others. Usually what they say to any given person is something the recipient already knows to be true and is already aware how to come about it but people will always think in such a manner that their way is the best way. To sum up, Ralph people will always try to hold some form of authority to someone who conforms to how society wants them to