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Emerson and Thoreau

Ralph Emerson and Henry David were categorized as the two most dominant as well as the exciting transcendentalist authors of their days. Ralph Waldo emersion was not only a lecture and a rhymester but essayist as well (change words, they just don’t fit). Ralph was born on the 25th May 1803 and basically reflected the founding father of American Transcendentalism, “a philosophy that rejects the idea that knowledge can be fully derived from experience and observation; rather truth resides in the spiritual world. “Henry David Thoreau was a scholar of Ralph and was a known critic and essayist as well. The two men widely studied and embraced nature. The two were involved fully in individualism and nonconformity. (Here, write a thesis stating what is this essay about, what are the points you are going to write about?)

In Ralph’s essay, “Self-Reliance” and Henry’s essay, “Resistance to Civil Government “the essay was also known as “Civil disobedience”.in the respective essays, the two transcendent spoke on individualism and reforms and changes should be made of in the society (Emerson, 2012). Ralph and David (Emerson and Thoreau, always last names) being rebels attacked various spiritual, political, and the cultural values of the Americans people. Ralph argued that the society denies the people their freedoms hence a barrier to individualist (I don’t understand what are you trying to say? What “a barrier to individualist” means?). Emerson said, “Society is a joint-stock company, in which the members agree, for the better securing of his bread to each shareholder, to surrender the liberty and the culture of the eater. The virtue in most request is conformity ( it’s totally not related to what you have just wrote!!!! I don’t understand nothing!!!) According to Ralph, the way forward was self-reliance such that every man stays responsible for their personal life and should not get extremely covered in the society. The self-freedom remained the core principle of transcendent.

Thoreau demonstrated individualism by saying, “I think we should be men first, and subject afterward. It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right. The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right.” Emerson went further in the essay “Self-Reliance” to say, “To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men, that is a genius.”

Thoreau as Emerson student, was lived with the latter and adopted the ideas of the teacher. The ideas of individualism and society greatly influenced Thoreau. For example, the idea Emerson had that the power and heart of a man get ignored in then society hence limiting the will of the people to express themselves.one would not speak the ideas of the conscious mind freely at the same time the society feared the truth. (I don’t understand, please explain your point clearly) All that made Thoreau imagine that “everyone has an obligation to himself and himself alone. Too many people in society conform to what the government says is right and moral, when the true meaning of right or moral comes from what each individual holds to be what is right. to become a true individual is to make a very decision based upon your own personal belief of its morality, no matter what society says, and to act upon your belief accordingly.”

The unique and unifying knowledge in Emerson’s “Self-Reliance” in contrast to Thoreau’s “Civil Disobedience” was the cause for one to embrace individualism one has to be a nonconformist. Emerson further affirms that failure to discover oneself remains astonishing experience (Thoreau, 2012). Emerson argued, “Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” Thoreau compares the lack of will expression to the machines used by the government which is a program to work in a certain specific manner (I don’t understand). The poet said, (who) “The mass of men serves the state thus, not as men mainly, but as machines, with their bodies.” Thoreau had an intention of confronting the government as the body that encouraged conformity in that people were lightened to their own moral commitments. Emerson tried encouraging individualism in thinking and action, for example, arguing that individualism allowed survival in changing world or society.

It was not smooth for the two to convince all, in fact, they faced a lot of critics on their belief in individualism and non-conformity. Some critic said, “On the surface, Emerson and Thoreau appear to have been model individualists. But underneath the surface, their philosophy was rooted in the anti-individualist religious doctrines.” It continued that, “It is ironic that, in encouraging individuals to break away from social norms, Emerson and Thoreau also urged individuals to mindlessly obey the will of s supposed God. If Emerson had made the relationship between conformity and nonconformity in his philosophy explicit, he might have said, “Whoso would be a nonconformist must first conform to God.”

Emerson had the mind that all great work was done by individuals and in the capacity of self-reliance, stating that “In every work of a genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts: they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty. Great works of art have no more affecting lesson for us than this. They teach us to abide by our spontaneous impression with good-humored inflexibility then most when the whole cry out of voices is on the other side. Else, tomorrow a stranger will say with masterly good sense precisely what we have thought and felt all the time, and we shall be forced to take with shame our own opinion.” Thoreau had the main them in the essay of, “Resistance to Civil Government” which was the need for one to keep own ideas and conscious against the unjust authorities.

Conclusion

The two writers helped in developing the USA by instilling self-confidence and the desirable freedom of the people. The Americans of today bowed to the world complain that they were too individualists who only cared about themselves. The two writers who were the founders of transcendentalism in America expressed the need for soul and nature. Their stand and views of issues on individualism and society affected even then political systems of the country.

Work cited

Emerson, R. W. (2012). Self-reliance and other essays. Courier Corporation.

Płotka, W. (2011). Which Transcendentalism? Many Faces of Husserlian Transcendentalism. In Transcendentalism Overturned (pp. 415-427). Springer Netherlands.

Thoreau, H. D. (2012). Civil disobedience and other essays. Courier Corporation.

1. Too many quotations.

2. The question is mainly about “why do think they taught together” but you went too far explaining individualism.

3. Please edit some mistakes and correct them.

4. Some ideas are not clear and need some explanations.

5. Try to use simple English, no need to use fancy words.

I know that you change some words and write their synonyms (after copying them from some sources), but, after you write any word’s synonym, make sure that the idea still understandable.

One last thing, please feel free to express your ideas about them as if it’s not an academic essay. Meaning, it’s ok to go and write whatever you think, it not has to be so academic writing!

I know you can write much better than this