Ralph Waldo Emerson

possible to go through life while only being reliable on ourselves? We as humans develop and evolve with the support of society, but the reality is that only we can trust ourselves and be self-reliant on what we know. Through the readings of Socrates, Emerson, and Whitman, we can proceed to believe that each man should relay his own thoughts and feelings of the world and its teachings. Hence, this lets each person be self-reliant in whatever they believe is just. After turning eighteen, I took…

The reading for this week comes from William Cronon’s book Uncommon Ground. Throughout the passage, Cronon argues that our modern view of wilderness is paradoxically flawed, but due to the historical effects of the sublime and the frontier that emerged at the end of the 19th century, the adoration of wilderness has become ingrained in our culture. These ideologies have imprinted man-made moral values and cultural symbols on wilderness. Cronon asserts that this romanticism of nature currently…

heart is true for all men, -that is genius.” It’s clear that the author wants the readers to become more as individuals, rather than living up to social expectations. He also emphasizes that it’s crucial to listen to your heart and one’s own voice. Emerson believes that individual experience has a greater impact on someone than the knowledge gained from books. “Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string… Great men have always done so, and confided themselves childlike…

William Bottiglia wrote an interesting piece titled Candide’s Garden that addresses multiple interpretations made by other scholars and simultaneously disproves the validity of their observations while emphasizing that the garden is truly a symbol for meliorism. His piece begins with a short overview of Milton’s life including how “Candide pursues a course of intellectual argument which parallels the evolution of Voltaire’s cultural attitude during that decade” (Bottiglia 718). Using this…

Hank Davis explains Caveman Logic to be vestigial reasoning that has been passed down from the ancestors of humans which has led modern day humans to behave a certain way in certain situations. An example of this that I find in my own life is in my personal mantra: Positive Affirmations are the Key to Success. The idea behind this saying is that by constantly speaking good things into existence they will simply be because the "universe" is going to reciprocate my energy, following the law of…

Living Without Superficial Needs and Fear Reading Where I Lived and What I Lived For, there are multiple noticeable themes throughout the story. The first theme found was, “to live deliberately, man must live without superficial needs.” (Thoreau 1) Another theme found in the story was, to live sturdily, man must take his time and think, to live without fear. This report will cover the changes throughout the story between the two themes. The first paragraph of Where I Lived and What I Lived For…

Romanticism was a movement in the 1770s that focused on the primacy of the individual, inspiration, subjectivity, and the belief in the supernatural. Transcendentalism began in the late 1820s and was influenced by other movements such as Romanticism. Romanticism and Transcendentalism can be seen throughout the poems Thanatopsis, written by William Cullen Bryant, and Song of Myself, written by Walt Whitman, respectively. The tenets of Romanticism can be seen be analyzing Thanatopsis,…

(H) What makes a writer go down in history as a literary icon? Most would say writing style is what appeals most to the readers. (CI) Hermann Hesse, a German writer and poet, is said to have one of the most unique writing styles of the early nineteenth century. His works include Demian and Siddhartha. (G1) The themes he utilizes have a recurring role in his works, which make it a distinctive feature of his. (G2) The author’s personal experiences tie into his storylines and make the reader…

Nature, our daily companion, our place of quiet and peace, our best friend, yet our worst nightmare, but what is nature, what does it provide and why is it so important for mankind? What do we consider as sublime and do we, the people, consider ourselves as sublime nature? At this point it is important to note that this essay will be dealing with a different approach to sublime nature. "So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created…

The poem "Nothing Gold Can Stay" was first published in 1923 in America by the acclaimed author Robert Frost, whom at the time was thought to have a hostile view towards nature (Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism). Imagery in literature refers to use of descriptive terms in the hopes of making the reader experience the scenery of the text in their mind. Symbols are utilized mainly works such as narratives to represent something greater than what is actually mentioned. Personification is the…