Emerson Believes example essay topic

358 words
The individual is portrayed by romantics in many different aspects, but all believing that an individual should think for them self. Ralph Waldo Emerson writes in his works of how people must do as they like and not follow in the shadow of others. Henry David Thoreau believes that people should think for themselves in respect to the government and rule for themselves. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow writes in his works of how people should seize the day and live life to its fullest, avoiding the fear of the future. Emerson believes that every person has their own mind and that they should use it to do what pleases them. In his piece "Self-Reliance", he writes, "To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart, is true for all men, - that is genius" (550).

He suggests that doing what one believes in their heart and mind to be true is the correct thing to accomplish. He wants people as individuals to turn away from the pressures of society and not to do what pleases others, instead to do what pleases them self. Thoreau fixates on the idea that people should fight the government to allow themselves to be free and rule on their own thoughts. He clearly states his view in his piece "Resistance to the Civil Government", when he writes", 'That government is best which governs not at all;' and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have" (852). He does not want the government to have control over the people, and so he believes that it is best if the government does not govern at all. This allows individuals to think for themselves and to follow what they believe to be correct, and not what someone tells them is correct.

Longfellow's main theme exists in that all people should not live always worrying about the future and that they should live life for today. In his poem "A Psalm of Life", he writes, "Life is real.