Self Reliance In Emerson's Mind example essay topic

This essay speaks to the uniqueness of an individual. Emerson addresses the notion that were created beings with the creator living in us, and as such we as individuals are reflections of this deity. Further, we are to embrace our own goodness or individual ability to accomplish all we desire in life and to contribute our special giftedness to all of human kind. Emerson infers that we have gifts and talents that are at our disposal and need to be seeking out and mining these intrinsic gifts and take advantage of them. We the individual are the makers of our happiness, our fortune and our destiny. These life principles are inherent in us because they are from God and the individual is from God and has the power of that relationship in him to be the master of his temple (body) etc, etc.

Emerson developed a philosophy on the ideal man and we as a society today, far from live up to it. In Emerson's essay "Self Reliance" he quotes, "So God has armed youth and puberty and manhood no less with its own piquancy and charm, and made it enviable and gracious and its claims not to be put by, if it will stand by itself". God being the creator of man gave man its own lively character and charm. God made it so everyone had something to want and none was perfect them self.

The creator gave his creation similar attributes he him self possessed. We as the creation need to use those characteristics for good as he did. We as a society are selfish and dependent on the world's acceptance. Most people today need to be reliant upon fitting in amongst peers or they are lost. In society now everyone is dependent on technology i.e. Computers, Labor reducing machinery, and calculators, etc.

Many people today revolve around social acceptance. Emerson quotes, "What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think. This rule, equally arduous in actual and in intellectual life, may serve for the whole distinction between greatness and meanness. It is the harder, because you will always find those who think they know what is your duty better than you know it. 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 says it is better to live for your self than to live for the acceptance of others.

It is what you want that is important not what others want you to do. He says it is easy to do what everyone else is doing or has already done but the great man stays the black sheep with pride. Too many people today live in the shadows of others. Every day I see someone acting as if they were someone else just to fit in.

No one knows yourself better than you, but still, most people give in to negative peer pressure. Emerson quoted directly towards man in this paragraph, "Man is timid and apologetic; he is no longer upright; he dares not to say 'I think', 'I am', but quotes saint or sage. He is ashamed before the blade of grass or the blowing rose. These roses under my window make no reference to former roses or to better ones; they are for what they are; they exist with God today.

There is no time to them. There is simply the rose; it is perfect in every moment of its existence. Before a leaf-bud has burst, its whole life acts; in the full-blown flower there is no more; in the leafless root there is no less. Its nature is satisfied, and it satisfies nature, in all moments alike. Man postpones or remembers; he does not live in the present, but with reverted eye laments the past, or heedless of the riches that surround him, stands on tiptoe to foresee the future. He cannot be happy and strong until he too lives with nature in the present, above time".

Emerson says man is too weak to even speak for him self. He compares man to a rose and we are nothing like the rose. The rose does not refer to better roses or past roses it just is perfect for the time it lives. Man always refers to the past and better times so much that he cannot even realize the good things he has in the present. High school kids are told to strive for the future so much, that they cannot even enjoy their youth. Man does not trust himself enough to rely on only him, which is why he refers to the greatness of others and not the greatness of him self.

Being able to wake your self up in the morning or being able to cook your own meals, was not self reliance in Emerson's mind. He was referring to ones spiritual and intellectual reliance. Too many people today do not rely on them selves in solving their own conflicts with anything. Man relies on the materials he has to get him through life, not on his mind and self-worth to get him through. Emerson states, "And so the reliance on property, including the reliance on governments which protect it, is the want of self reliance. Men have looked away from themselves and at things so long, that they have come to esteem the religious, learned, and civil institutions as guards of property, and they deprecate assaults on these, because they feel them to be assaults on property.

They measure their esteem of each other by what each has, not by what each is". Society today is a battle for who can make the most money thus the basis of this country. Materialism is a must in American society Emerson thinks it should be who a man is rather than what a man has. In conclusion Emerson wrote, "So use all that is called fortune. Most men gamble with her, and gain all, and lose all, as her wheel rolls.

But do thou leave as unlawful these winnings, and deal with cause and effect, the chancellors of God. In the will work and acquire, and thou hast chained the wheel of chance, and shalt sit hereafter out of fear from fear rotations. A political victory, a rise of rents, the recovery of your sick, or the return of your absent friend, or some other favorable event raises your spirits, and you think good days are preparing for you. Do not believe it. Nothing can bring you peace but your self. Nothing can bring you peace but the triumph of principles".

Emerson says not to waste anything with value and to know for your self what you value, that is the gateway to self reliance. He says not to base your happiness on others presence or your favorite football team winning or losing because they will not bring you happiness. The only thing that can bring you a void filling peace of mind is yourself and the triumph of principles. Happiness for today's society is based on its success.

For instance a business man's happiness is controlled by the success or failure of his business.