The Sense Of Self: Ralph Waldo Emerson And Walt Whitman

Ralph Waldo Emerson and Walt Whitman emphasize the importance of living true to yourself and developing complete self-acceptance. To live a genuine life and completely accept who you are, you must understand your identity and your sense of self. In Self-Reliance, Emerson explains that your identity and your sense of self are spiritual. Whitman argues, in Song of Myself, that your identity and sense of self are based on both your soul and your body. While both Emerson and Whitman allow for intimate connections and friendships, Emerson encourages people to have relationships with a select few, whereas Whitman encourages people to connect with everyone and anyone, due to their different views of self. In general, both Emerson and Whitman highlight

Emerson believes self is spiritual and that your identity is found in your soul. He does not highlight the physical aspects of self, he instead just focuses on what is on the inside. Emerson states, “the soul raised over passion beholds identity and eternal causation, perceives the self-existence of Truth and Right, and calms itself with knowing that all things go well” (Emerson 29). Emerson is illustrating that the soul contains your identity, and therefore, your sense of self. Emerson is also explaining that the soul sees the truth, which Emerson believes is the key to living true to yourself as everyone is better off if they follow their own truths. When people follow their own truths, they are “safe at last” meaning they are living the way they are supposed to live (Emerson 31). In other parts of his essay, Emerson says that the soul is light, that the relation of the soul to the divine spirit is pure, and that the soul “becomes.” Emerson consistently provokes a positive connotation for the word soul because your soul is the most important part that makes you who you are, as it contains your

Whereas Emerson believes the self strictly exists in your soul, Whitman believes that sense of self is found in both your soul and your body. Whitman sees your soul and body as a point of connection and that you cannot have one without the other and that the two are equal. For instance, Whitman says, “I have said that the soul is not more than the body, And I have said that that body is not more than the soul, And nothing, not God is greater to one than one’s-self is” (Whitman 51). Whitman is illustrating that the soul and the body are equal to one another and that one is not more important than the other. Therefore, he does not agree with Emerson that the two souls must be on the same spiritual level because you can connect to anyone who has a body and since everyone has a body, you can and should connect to everyone. The last part of this quote also reinforces the importance of self-acceptance and your sense of self because nothing, not even God, is greater than yourself. He also continuously sees himself in others and identifies with everyone throughout his poem, showing the importance of relationships and connectedness which arises from his belief that the self is both soul and body. Overall, self and identity are intriguing topics that many people want to know more about. Everyone wants to know who he or she is, and your identity allows you to understand yourself better. This is