Henry David Thoreau's Five Core Beliefs In Self-Reliance And Emerson

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Society is a trap that has a hold of everyone. It fears originality and creativity so instead it wants everybody to look the same and act the same. Nonconformity is the only way to break free from this trap. The beliefs of transcendentalism discourages conforming to the trap of society. Transcendentalism is the idea that in order to learn about God and other things in the universe people must “transcend” earthly experiences to learn more about nature. Transcendentalists believe everyone is connected by an over-soul and that God is within every living thing. Transcendentalism has five main core beliefs. Non conformity is one of them along with confidence, self-reliance, free thought and also the importance of nature. Henry David Thoreau and …show more content…
Why can’t people just be themselves? This is the main point Thoreau and Emerson want us to take away from their essays’ Self Reliance and Walden. Conformity is a choice, and the world would be a lot better off if everybody broke free from the grasps of society and acted how they want to act. Thoreau and Emerson both demonstrate non-conformity similarly in their essays’ Self Reliance and Walden; this is shown by explaining that people should not let others shape who they are, that everyone’s ideas should be original, and also that one should follow his own intuitions and beliefs. Think about a world that doesn’t have a society nagging at people to be the same as everyone else. The world would be a place where everyone is free to express their thoughts and ideas. If everyone could express themselves freely it would allow for more creativity and in turn advance the human race with new technology and theories. I think Thoreau and Emerson want people to see nonconformity as a goal for everyone to try and obtain. Thoreau practically lived nonconformity during his Walden Pond experiment; on the other hand Emerson mainly preached about it. Both of these writers had the same ideas about non-conformity and expressed them in their essays Self Reliance and Walden. Although it seems hard, if everyone listened to the wise words of Emerson and Thoreau people could create a new society that values the individual and the ideas and thoughts that come from each person. It may seem like a large job for one or two people, but if everybody worked together they could change society for the better and make the world a more creative and independent

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