The Conflicting and Satirical Views of Self-reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson Essay Example

against the manhood of every one of its members. ” Emerson also explains the two factors that inhibit people from trusting themselves- societal disapproval and foolish consistency. He laments how the world criticizes people for not following the norm. He undermines public control as “trifle,” and something that people should not bother about. Emerson also attacks “foolish consistency.

Consistency or confirming to the social norms and expectations is the poison to creativity and individuality: “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines” (Emerson). Consistency is all about controlling people. He reminds readers that they should not fear being different, because inconsistency signifies uniqueness and individuality. He supports this view by saying that: “The voyage of the best ship is a zigzag line of a hundred tacks. ” Following the straight line that everyone else follows delimits self-reliance, which defeats the purpose of having a mind of one’s own.

Finally, Emerson defines self-reliance as a responsibility for self-improvement. Self-improvement, in Emerson’s mind, does not necessitate compassion for others, nevertheless. Emerson resists partaking in the activities of charities and helping the poor, and he asks: “Are they my poor? ” For him, people should be accountable for their own socio-economic conditions, and people have also to rely on themselves economically.

He also notes that virtues are no longer important, if they serve others and not self-development: “Their virtues are penances. Emerson argues for people to live for themselves and work hard for the lives they want and the kind of people they want to be. Like Emerson, Edwards argues that people should rely on themselves in understanding God. Edwards uses images

to depict the idea of experiencing God by differentiating a man, who knows that honey is sweet, because ants are attracted to it, versus a man, who knows that honey is sweet, after tasting its sweetness: “There is a wide difference between mere speculative rational judging anything to be excellent, and having a sense of its sweetness and beauty.

Emerson, on the other hand, believes that God can be experienced in many ways, as long as it is done through self-reflection: “It must be that when God speaketh he should communicate, not one thing, but all things. ” This is interpreted as understanding God according to one’s reason and reflection. Edwards, however, underscores the importance of obtaining spiritual knowledge by using one’s heart. Edwards also argues that God uses man’s reasoning abilities to communicate divine truths.

However, he says that reason is incomplete without the divine light: “Our eyes in beholding various objects, when the sun arises, are not the cause of the light that discovers those objects to us. ” This spiritual light allows people to understand God. Furthermore, Edwards asserts that God sends the spiritual light. Spiritual understanding then comes from outside the people, an idea which counters the Emerson’s belief that people should trust only themselves. In “Walden,” Henry David Thoreau applies Emerson’s concept of self-reliance through social and physical isolation.

Thoreau lives in Walden pond to test, if he can live alone. By living away from society and material comforts, Thoreau interprets self-reliance as equal to social and physical isolation. For him, self-reliance also means economically depending on oneself. He believes that self-reliance revolves around: “little common sense, a little enterprise and business talent.

” When his clothes became worn and torn, he sewed them back together. Self-reliance also means not caring about what the world thinks about one’s physical appearance.

Like Emerson also, Thoreau believes in self-reliance that comes from using one’s reason to attain intellectual development: “There was pasture enough for my imagination. ” Thoreau applies Emersonian views of self-reliance to the extreme of economic, social, and physical seclusion. “Bartleby the Scrivener” is Melville’s way of satirizing Emerson’s and Thoreau’s views of self-reliance. In this story, Melville narrates how Bartleby lives like Thoreau by being socially and economically secluded.

He also makes a parody of Emerson’s lack of compassion for other people, wherein the latter says: “Expect me not to show cause why I seek or why I exclude company. ” Melville takes this statement to excess by creating the character of Bartleby, a man who cares not of what other people think of him or if he hurts their feelings. Bartleby makes no explanation for himself and he frequently says: “I prefer not to. ” Bartleby dies alone in the end, without love or happiness in his life. Through a caricature of self-reliance, Melville argues that being socially and economically secluded is not a fertilizer to the mind or a gift to one’s life.

Instead, self-reliance, in the extreme, is lethal. Emerson seeks to provide a framework of self-reliance that depends on close introspection, by trusting oneself only. Winthrop believes in self-reliance, in order to experience spiritual development, but he asserts the use of divine light. Thoreau practices self-reliance through social and economical isolation. The same philosophy is mocked by Melville, who indicates that self-reliance is equal to self-destruction,

and cliche as it may seem- no man can live like an island and survive.