Are you living life, right? What if someone told you that you were doing this whole life thing wrong all along? In reading the writings of transcendentalist, ones perception of life may be completely altered. The comparing and contrasting of modern day Americans lives and how that should, can be eye-opening. Both Emerson and Thoreau incorporate their beliefs on the topic in their compositions. As I see it, one should live their life according to their idea of fulfilling, rather than how many do live in modern America; in consonance to status, to fit in, and being complacent. A lot of people say that one should live their life by doing what makes them happy. Everyone’s idea of happy is different. In a world where people lived how they “should”, happy would include being completely overjoyed with your life, yourself, and not needing others or material things to define you. But in modern
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the mindset of wanting to fit in but simultaneously stand out leads to everyone being similar. But as Emerson stated in his work “Self-Reliance”, “we but half express ourselves, and are ashamed of the divine idea which each of us represents” (369). Showing how people being afraid to completely express themselves manifest the movement of fitting in. Another example from Thoreau of modern day Americans losing opportunities because they want to fit in is, “... that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life in which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours” (Walden 385). He’s depicting the idea that if everyone lives the life they imaged, rather than one to be accepted, success is a
the mindset of wanting to fit in but simultaneously stand out leads to everyone being similar. But as Emerson stated in his work “Self-Reliance”, “we but half express ourselves, and are ashamed of the divine idea which each of us represents” (369). Showing how people being afraid to completely express themselves manifest the movement of fitting in. Another example from Thoreau of modern day Americans losing opportunities because they want to fit in is, “... that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life in which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours” (Walden 385). He’s depicting the idea that if everyone lives the life they imaged, rather than one to be accepted, success is a