Ralph Waldo Emerson's Self Reliance

As the profound Dutch writer Hans Christian Andersen put it, “just living is not enough… one must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.” These words stay true throughout the history of time, and the importance of freedom cannot be undersold. Even in the mid nineteenth century, when slavery ran wild, the slaves knew the importance of their freedom, but they could not quite achieve it just by themselves. People cannot achieve freedom alone because any revolution requires multiple people to succeed and gain influence and since freedom is only achieved after one is oppressed by another, it means more than one person is involved; although others may argue that freedom from oneself is something achieved alone, in reality, one is never really

At any point of civilized society, it is impossible to gain any movement against the entire world. Society is too massive, too traditionalized, and unable to change. In Ralph Waldo Emerson’s, “Self Reliance” Emerson studies this phenomenon, stating that, “Society is a joint-stock company, in which the members agree, for the better securing of his bread to each shareholder, to surrender the liberty and culture of the eater”(“Self Reliance”). This passage incorporates the negative word choice of ‘surrender’ to indicate how impossible it is for just one person to make a difference in this world. Even further, the details of each member destroying their individuality to stay alive depicts how improbable it would be for any one member of that same society could change it. This problem however is easily fixed with help. Even dangerous help can be good, because of its intent to help others. In The Secret Life of Bees, Kidd understands this importance and in a scene where Rosaleen is in jail, she is unable to break out from jail. So, to help, Lily breaks her out as she says to her, “‘[y]ou’ve got to get out of here… if you stay here, those men are gonna come back and kill you”(Kidd 49). The anxious and hurried tone of Lily as well as extreme word choice of ‘kill’, it is understood that Lily needs to help Rosaleen get out of a terrible situation, where she is not free. Both the examples given introduce the problem as a unchangeable society, and a quick solution to be to work together in order to achieve that freedom. Freedom is not only need to be achieved together but can also be achieved in times of oppression which equally dictate that there are multiple people involved in attaining