Self Reliance By Ralph Waldo Emerson Analysis

Transcendentalism is extremely interesting as a concept. At its core, the idea of the movement is have a good life by being yourself and hugging trees! However, its lack of moral structure and sheer magnitude of unanswered questions are mildly concerning. Say that a man lived in an area with only one or two redheads, and the redheads were from different houses and different families; they always got in trouble, and were always committing crimes. The man might think that being a redhead is the problem. What if nobody else committed crimes in the town, what if the person saw these redheads doing bad things and got the idea that redheads are inherently bad and need to be exterminated from the earth? The redheads can do what they want and speak their truths, so what’s stopping the man from murdering all redheads? According to his truth, all redheads are evil! In his essay, “Self-Reliance,” Ralph Waldo Emerson says that, “...to be great is to be misunderstood,” (Emerson), but some people (such as the man murdering the …show more content…
They’re impractical, completely idealist, and the only thing going for them in my mind is their positivity; Transcendentalists are nothing if not positive. This can be seen in Thoreau’s Walden, “If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.” (Thoreau). I love this quote because it shows the positivity taught by Transcendentalism. They believe that all work should be celebrated. The quote says that nothing can be done the “wrong” way as long as it gets done in the end, an idea in which I believe strongly. However, this is one of the very few aspects of Transcendentalism that I believe to be acceptable. Aside from the positivity of the movement, I think that Transcendentalism is impractical and needs restrictions to keep itself