Ralph Waldo Emerson

Paper Summary:

This paper examines how Ralph Waldo Emerson?s transcendentalist philosophy shifted and changed over the course of his life. In particular, it looks at how Emerson?s ideas in his essays ?Self-Reliance? and ?The American Scholar? show profound shifts in judgment on what a human being and a thinker should aspire to be. It attempts to show that the Emerson that is most likely to be amenable to the sensibilities of college students today is likely to be that of his later essay upon ?Self-Reliance,? rather than his earlier ?The American Scholar,? which only manifests the later essay?s ideas in a half-formulated and a much more Christian-focused fashion.

From the Paper:

"Today's emphasis on postmodernism and the constant restructuring of one's identity over the course of one's educational existence makes the lack of consistency and the disdain for tradition expressed by Emerson in the earlier essay to be quite attractive to young college students. ?Else, to-morrow 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 from another,? writes Emerson, if we do not constantly reexamine our own opinions. Emerson's overall philosophy, as expressed in this essay, is that rather than looking to past, European models of excellence and artistic expression, young Americans must create their own, new models that are not hemmed in by past ideals. To live is to constantly reinvent one's self and life."

More papers on Ralph Waldo Emerson:

• Essay # 55004 : "The Life and Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson"
• Comparison Essay # 103749 : "Ralph Waldo Emerson and Jonathan"
• Essay # 93643 : "Ralph Waldo Emerson"

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: