You look around at your surroundings, and analyze everything you see. The phone that rests on your coffee table reminds you of the phone you threw at your best friend when you learn she betrayed you- that was the day when you realized you had to be your own best friend. The brown coffee table takes you back to when you looked into your dog's deep hazel eyes and realized that you had to put her out of her misery and give her a lethal shot- that sometimes the hardest thing and the right thing to do are the same. Everything and everyone teaches us life lessons- from celebrities to relationships to experience. Celebrities teach us that no matter what obstacles life puts in front of you, you must continue doing what you love and success will come to you. Relationships teach us that we deserve to be around people that will treat us with respect, and experience taught us that we should not regret our mistakes because they make us who we are today. Ralph Waldo Emerson is an influential person to society because he not only taught us to be thankful for everything that occurs in the beauty that is life, he taught us that our thoughts rule the world, that we must make our thoughts a reality for it to affect our lives- we should do what we are afraid to do. He inspires our generation to be ourselves, because "To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment."**1
Ralph Waldo Emerson was born on May 25, 1803 to Ruth Haskins and Reverend William Emerson in Boston, Massachusetts. His father was a famous Boston minister who was transitioning from Congregationalism to Unitarianism when Waldo was born (when in college he removed the 'Ralph' from his name). He was the second born of the ei...
... middle of paper ...
...hievement of Mr. Emerson is that he is a talented essayist, poet, philosopher, and journalist. His essays Nature Divinity School, Address, The American Scholar Address, Essays and Essays: The Second Series were about transcendentalism and going against formalism- which is a strong attachment to an external form also known as God.
Works Cited
Bode, Carl. Ralph Waldo Emerson; a Profile. N.Y.: Hill and Wang, 1968.
Miles, Josephine. Ralph Waldo Emerson. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, 1964.
"Ralph Waldo Emerson." Biography. (n.d.). 9, Mqy 2014.
Ralph Waldo Emerson. (2014). The Biography.com website. Retrieved 04:13, May 11, 2014, from http://www.biography.com/people/ralph-waldo-emerson-9287153.
Shmoop Editorial Team. "Ralph Waldo Emerson Timeline of Important Dates." Shmoop.com. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 11 May 2014.
Emerson is known as the father of Transcendentalism because he was the founder of the movement. His writings appealed to both intellectuals and the general public even if his new ideas were hard for most of society to understand. Emerson’s entire life journey was transcendental. He was constantly thinking outside of society’s norms. Emerson once said “Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist” (Emerson). Emerson means that to be a real man you cannot conform to what society wants you to be. Society tends to want everyone to think the same way and do what they are told to do. A man cannot go around following others and not thinking for himself.
He is intensely critical of society as a whole, but believes that a man can change himself. He wrote with an encouraging tone that was also insightful to common behavior. Emerson was generally sanguine but was also pragmatic as necessary. His works incorporate a personal tone which helps to relate the reader and author. Many common aphorisms are excerpts from his work.
Well known transcendentalist and writer, Ralph Waldo Emerson, in his poem The Apology, describes his unapologetic nature towards the people misunderstanding his passion and beliefs, as well as his feelings toward the existence of a God. Emerson was born on May 25th, 1803. Ralph Waldo Emerson graduated from Harvard University in 1821. He became a transcendentalist in 1823, these beliefs being what inspired most of his works. Emerson became a licensed and ordained minister by the year 1829. Emerson married Ellen Tucker in 1829 as well. When she died of tuberculosis in 1831, he fell into a state of depression. Her death, added to his own recent crisis of faith, caused him to resign from the church. In 1833 he began to lecture
The Anthology of American Literature says, “Like his philosophy, his writing seemed to lack organization, but it swarmed with epigrams and memorable passages” (939). Even though Ralph Waldo Emerson’s works had flaws, he “was nineteenth-century America’s most notable essayist” (Anthology of American Literature, 938). According to Daniel G. Payne, Emerson’s point of view of transcendentalism is “views on nature and its relation to God and the human soul” (Payne). Standing on the bare ground, my head bathed by the blithe air, and uplifted into infinite space, all mean egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eye-ball; I am nothing; I see all; the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part or particle of God" (942).
In his essay Nature, Waldo Emerson expresses most of his ideas about Transcendentalism movement. He has a strong belief that people should go back to solitude and unite with nature as “In the woods we return to reason and faith”(217). He considers that making a strong bond with nature we “become a transparent eye-ball”(217) and “part or particle of God”(217). Even though the wild woods seem to be a salvation for the society and whole humanity, he truly thinks that ”…few adult persons can see nature. Most persons do not see the sun. At least they have a superficial seeing”(216).
Ralph Waldo Emerson might have been Truman a standout amongst our incredible geniuses despite the fact that he. Might have a short history. In any case likewise Emerson once said himself. “Great geniuses have the most brief biographies.” Emerson might have been likewise a significant. Pioneers for “the philosophical development for Transcendentalism”. Transcendentalism might have been faith for a higher actuality over that found ordinary an aggregation. That a mankind 's camwood accomplish. Anecdotal data Emerson might have been destined around May 25, 1803 done Boston, Massachusetts. As much adore for music, something she imparts to her father passed on at he might have been youthful and as much mothball. Might have been exited with him and as much four different siblings. Toward those
Ralph Waldo Emerson grew up in Boston, Massachusetts his childhood was good. Emerson’s father William Emerson was a clergyman, which the majority of Emerson’s lineage had been. Emerson went Boston Latin School and later went to Harvard University and the Harvard school of divinity. In 1826, he was approved as minister and ordained to the Unitarian church in 1829. Emerson had three main points about scholars being educated. The three key points were that nature, books, and action educate the scholar. The first point was that nature’s variety conceals fundamental laws that are the same time laws if the human mind: “the ancient principle, “Know Thyself” and the modern principal, “Study Nature”.
...n with Emerson got him started with the Transcendentalism movement, which came natural to him because of his love for nature. Author’s personal experiences reflect greatly in their own work.
"In the woods, we return to reason and faith. There I feel that nothing can befall me in life, - no disgrace, no calamity (leaving me my eyes), which nature cannot repair. Standing on the bare ground, - my head bathed by the blithe air and uplifted into infinite space, - all mean egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eyeball. I am nothing. I see all. The currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part or particle of God."
The first step in Emerson’s careerbuilder was to go to school, so he was entered into Harvard at the age of fourteen. His educational experience carried him through his teens, and around the age of twenty-five, he was still following the path his mother and aunt had dug out for him. Emerson had been accepted for a job at Boston's Second Church. He worked at that ministry for several years, and then his transcendentalist side began to appear.
Emerson, Ralph Waldo. “The American Scholar”. American Public Addresses 1740 – 1952. A. Craid Baird. McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., 1956.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, nineteenth century poet and writer, expresses a philosophy of life, based on our inner self and the presence of the soul. Emerson regarded and learned from the great minds of the past, he says repeatedly that each person should live according to his own thinking. I will try to explain Emerson’s philosophy, according to what I think he is the central theme in all his works.
Emerson was a good writer where every people appreciated his piece of work because his writing is more about a system of th...
In an address to the scholars in the Phi Beta Kappa society at Cambridge in Massachusetts Ralph Waldo Emerson in 1837 delivered a speech in which he stated that the literature during the European influence required scholars to memorize texts written by other writers. The speech was titled The American Scholar and the main idea of his speech was that the literature in America should be completely different from the European literature. Basically the scholars should have the freedom to write in any form they wish to write in and not copy the way other writers have already written. By this statement Emerson reminds the citizens of America that their culture were modified by the Europeans so much that people had already started to forget their own culture. In this respect Emerson is reminding the citizens of America that since they won the war of independence against the Europeans and that they now had a chance to start afresh every developmental activity. Therefore in literature to start fresh the Americans needed to write in a new form that would be different from how the Europeans wrote and had taught Americans to write. Emerson claims that the new form of writing can be achieved through influences from nature, books and action. He was thus a transcendentalist.
Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.” Emerson is a firm believer of maintaining self-reliance and values rather than following the crowd. He also explains that in order to be truly successful in life, a person must make decisions and trust in his or her judgment. In today’s society, teenagers are more likely to not be self-reliant because the teens feel they will be judged for having different beliefs. People today need to realize that they should not conform to be like the rest of the world, they must not depend on the judgment and criticism of others, and people must refuse to travel somewhere in order to forget their personal problems. Through Emerson’s piece, readers are able to reflect on how people in the world today must try to be independent of others and uphold their personal opinions and philosophy.