The ideas of transcendentalism and self reliance apply to today because transcendentalism surrounds the idea of prosperity within a man’s individual doing and applies a sense of separation from society. In “Self-Reliance” by Ralph Waldo Emerson, it is explained that, “There is a time in every man’s education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse… Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist” (Emerson). Ralph Waldo Emerson represents the transcendentalist movement with his mindset that we must not conform to society and that we must be our own person and be strong enough to support ourselves. These ideas apply to today in the way that we can be our own person, we can be unique, and we …show more content…
The ideas of transcendentalism also apply to the concept of unschooling. Unschooling is a version of homeschooling and a philosophy that advocates learner-chosen activities as a primary means for learning. The people who unschool are learning in a way individualized to the specific student and not learning based off of societies standards. The transcendentalist movement impacted history and still is relevant to today and appears in many people's ideals and practices. The poem I will be analyzing is “Acquainted with the Night” by Robert Frost. Even from the beginning Frost says, “I have been one acquainted with the night” (Frost). He repeats this line again at the end of his poem as well to summarize the thoughts he has written. I think this line represents the theme well. Robert Frost is trying to say that he has had a gamut of experiences. He has seen the darkest of nights, literally and figuratively. He knows these nights well and is