Self-Reliance Study Guide consists of approx. 58 pages of summaries and analysis on Self-Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Browse the literature study guide below:
In paragraph one, Emerson urges the reader to be bold and unafraid to voice his inner thoughts to the world at large. Emerson cites Moses, Plato and Milton as examples of men who used non-traditional thinking for their time and were unafraid to voice their own original thoughts and ideas. Emerson suggests that it takes practice for a man to become aware of his thinking and to recognize when he has an original thought. The next step after the recognition is to voice the thought. Emerson warns the reader that when he fails to express an original idea, he may later see that idea voiced by another, and then he can no longer claim that idea as his own. According to Emerson, the greatest purpose of art is to demonstrate the necessity of expressing one's own ideas lest one see them expressed by someone else and then have to accept the other person as the source of one's own thoughts. (read more)
