Does “The American Scholar” Reflect the Values of the Declaration of Independence and the American Constitution? 6

In 1837 Ralph Waldo Emerson in his speech to the scholars of the Phi Beta Kappa society at Cambridge in Massachusetts stated the need for Americans to preserve their own culture through literature. According to him the American literature was mostly influenced by the Europeans and this had made the Americans forget their own form of literature. He stated that the European literature was encouraging scholars to memorize the writings of other writers and not help them learn anything new. This he said was the negative impact books had on the scholars. He explained that writers can get ideas from nature and write about it in any way they please and that their actions are equally important in developing the new form of literature in America. An American scholar therefore relates to the principles of freedom and independence which directly translates into being creative, maintaining self trust, being practical, courageous and interdependence of the society.
Freedom and being independence is an onset for creativity where the scholar will able to do whatever it thinks. Without the freedom scholar is like caged birds which can never do what he thinks and cannot stand for ones right. “In this distribution of functions, the scholar is the delegated intellect. In the right sate, he is, Man thinking. In the degenerated state when the victim of society, he tends to become a mere thinker, or, still worse, the parrot of other men’s thinking.”(Emerson, 1837). Where it mainly talks about how the man should be with man thinking, which basically tells us that scholar should be working with their own knowledge rather than being a mere thinker which uses recourses to write or do anything which basically proves that without any resources to write. So, w...

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...s could have idea about what the scholar thinks of.
Emerson through the American scholar has encouraged writers to write with freedom that helps people research more than memorizing texts. The literature in America has changed since and many would refer to his speech as the intellectual declaration of independence like writers from Boston of his time did. The change in literature has thus helped scholars be more efficient and creative by researching on subjects rather than memorizing facts about them. Individuals working independently helps maintain self trust that contributes to unification of society in the country.

Works Cited

Cliff, (2014) . Emerson’s essay. Retrieved from http://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/e/emersons-essays/summary-and-analysis-of-theamerican-scholar/paragraphs-3145
Emerson.R.W. (2013). Emersons essays. Retrieved from: www.clifnote.com