Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote “Self Reliance” to discuss how valuable individualism is. Emerson uses metaphors, pathos, and tone to back up his belief. The focus of the essay is Emerson’s belief system Transcendentalism. Transcendentalism was a movement that taught that higher powers spread and become part of nature and humanity. It promotes the belief that we can see past the physical world by using free will to look inside our souls without following others. Emerson explains that we can understand ourselves and separate ourselves from every one else using this belief system. In “Self Reliance” Emerson wrote “A man must consider what a blindman's-buff is this game of conformity.” This metaphor is used to explain that people who follow