Comparing Emerson And Thoreau And Self-Reliance In Today's World

Both Emerson and Thoreau’s still have something to teach us today. The ideas that they share in “Self-Reliance” and “Life without Principle” are still relevant in today’s world. When students are taught about these writers they feel as if it’s a waste of time, but in reality if they paid close attention they would understand that it is for their benefit. Three ideas that Emerson shares is that people need to have more self-trust, people need to stop being fake and also that society plays a big factor on peoples decision making. Thoreau also shares three ideas with us, he says people should stay true to their heart’s desire and ignore what society thinks, be themselves and not act like someone they’re not, and last but not least, people should stay true to their own thoughts and not let others convince them that their thoughts are incorrect. I believe that people in today’s world try too hard to be someone they’re really not and also that they

Emerson writes about how people should speak their thoughts before it’s too late, before someone speaks it for them. This is still relevant today, many times a person will have a good answer to a question, or a good idea but won’t speak up and then they realize they should have when someone else speaks up with the same thought and gets a round of applause for having a great answer or idea. I myself have experienced this before. One day my professor asked the class a question and in my head I answered it, but didn’t want to speak up because I figured it was not a good answer. Moments later another student answered with the exact same answer I had in my head and the professor replied “that is correct” and the whole time I thought to myself “Wow, I should have spoken up.” This is one of many examples as to how Emerson’s idea of self-trust is still relevant today, people including myself should start having more confidence within themselves and not worry about what others may