intro) Transcendentalism was a philosophical movement that developed in the the late 1820’s and 30’s which was used to protest against a general state of creativity and spirituality. There were many transcendentalists who wrote pieces during this time period, such as Ralph Waldo Emerson. My personal favorite piece by him is Self Reliance. This piece genuinely spoke to me because he’s saying that you should always be true to who you are and never try to be someone you are not.
( idea 1 ) When reading Self Reliance, I loved how Emerson portrayed his thoughts and opinions on how you should be true to who you are. I personally made a connection with this piece because I used to always think that in order to fit in, you had to be like everyone else who was considered “cool or popular,” but as I got older, I realized it’s always best to be yourself and stay true to yourself which is exactly what Emerson himself is trying to tell others. In the beginning of the passage a quote that Emerson wrote was “ that imitation is suicide, that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion,” I honestly believe this quote to be true, imitation is suicide because the more you pretend to be someone you’re not, more of who you are …show more content…
Emerson says people have “ A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds who are adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines,’’ he is saying that people usually always stick with what is continually done or what they are told is the right thing rather than think for themselves. Then he goes to the topic of being misunderstood when asking if it would be so bad to be misunderstood, he says “Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton.’’ He wants people to realize that even these people were misunderstood and look at what they have accomplished. It wouldn’t be so bad to be misunderstood as long as you trust yourself that’s all that
( idea 1 ) When reading Self Reliance, I loved how Emerson portrayed his thoughts and opinions on how you should be true to who you are. I personally made a connection with this piece because I used to always think that in order to fit in, you had to be like everyone else who was considered “cool or popular,” but as I got older, I realized it’s always best to be yourself and stay true to yourself which is exactly what Emerson himself is trying to tell others. In the beginning of the passage a quote that Emerson wrote was “ that imitation is suicide, that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion,” I honestly believe this quote to be true, imitation is suicide because the more you pretend to be someone you’re not, more of who you are …show more content…
Emerson says people have “ A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds who are adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines,’’ he is saying that people usually always stick with what is continually done or what they are told is the right thing rather than think for themselves. Then he goes to the topic of being misunderstood when asking if it would be so bad to be misunderstood, he says “Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton.’’ He wants people to realize that even these people were misunderstood and look at what they have accomplished. It wouldn’t be so bad to be misunderstood as long as you trust yourself that’s all that