Self-Reliance, one of Emerson’s most famous essays, written in 1841, stresses his idea of relying on oneself rather than the notions that are set out by society. Emerson’s main theory or idea that he wants to bestow upon us is that one (the individual) should be held at a higher importance than anyone else. Throughout the essay, Emerson tries to challenge each and every individual as he says, “set at naught books and traditions” (Emerson, 1). Essentially, he meant that he wanted each individual to create his or her own rules, customs, religious ideals and to live life according to how they want to live, not based on the rules that a government or society would requires one to respect. My initial thoughts while reading Self-Reliance was that …show more content…
When put into a different perspective, what is really happening is that the society is trying to make sure that everyone is treated in an equal way in order to prevent the outbreak of chaos. Conformity is embedded in human nature and I do not think there is any way to escape from it. However, it is up to us to us because we can control the extent that we truly do conform. One is not obligated by society to completely conform because if that was the case, I do not think that there would be different political parties, races, sexual orientations, religions, food preference, and social statuses. Theses are just some examples of individuals who do not completely conform to society; rather, have changed society in ways to help it grow better and create a better representation of the differences of …show more content…
When Emerson wrote Self-Reliance, it was already a seemingly ridiculous idea to believe in because it was in the time of slavery. But without even tackling the subject of slavery, we can just think about an individual. When he or she is born, that individual was not born with a sense of right and wrong, or even an idea of what he or she should do. The individual is born into a society where each and every child is brought up to learn how to be an upstanding citizen. One phrase that Emerson said and really impacted me was “imitation is suicide” (Emerson, 2). In the context Emerson used imitation is not at all extreme enough to even think about comparing it to suicide. Emerson sees imitation as conforming to society. Conforming to society in doing what is “more right” rather than doing the wrong thing and causing harm to someone is more of a rewarding feeling rather than being