Transcript Self Reliance” - Lake Mills Area School District

“Self Reliance”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
What do you think? What kind of
impact did this essay have on you?
• Share reactions
Which does Emerson value more –
original thought or traditional
wisdom?
• He values original thought.
• “imitation is suicide”
• “Whose would be a man, must be a
nonconformist”
According to Emerson, which virtue
does society demand most – truth,
conformity, creativity, or selfreliance?
• Conformity
• “For nonconformity the world whips you
with its displeasure”
What is the only law that Emerson
says can be sacred to him?
• His own nature
• “No law can be sacred to me but that of
my nature”
• Emerson believed in the basic goodness
of humans, that they would do the right
thing if given the chance to make their own
decisions.
Summarize Emerson’s main ideas
• Do your own thing
– “imitation is suicide”
• Trust your own ideas
– “Trust thyself”
– “Whoso would be a man must be a
nonconformist”
– “No law can be sacred to me but that of my
nature”
– “What I must do is all that concerns me”
Summarize Emerson’s main ideas
(cont.)
• It’s hard to be a nonconformist
– “For nonconformity the world whips you”
– “the great man is he who in the midst of the
crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the
independence of solitude
• Don’t let consistency keep you from
trusting yourself
– “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little
minds”
Describe parts of your own life in
which Emerson’s ideas might apply
• Nonconformity
• Disregard for consistency
• Peer pressure
If you had heard this essay as a
public lecture, what questions
would you have liked to ask
Emerson directly about his
philosophy?
Bonus: identify at least two
aphorisms from this essay.
Transcendentalist Literature
Chart
Self-reliance/intuition
• Title: “Self-Reliance”
• “Trust thyself”
• “No law can be sacred to me but that of
my nature”
Importance of nature
• Human nature
• “No law can be sacred to me but that of
my nature”
Free thought and expression
• “Whoso would be a man, must be a
nonconformist”
• “Speak what you think now in hard words
and to-morrow speak what to-morrow
thinks in hard words again”
Importance of
individual/nonconformity
• “Whoso would be a man, must be a
nonconformist.”
• “What I must do is all that concerns me,
not what the people think.”
• “…the great man is he who in the midst of
the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness
the independence of solitude….”
Confidence
• “Speak what you think now in hard words
and to-morrow speak what to-morrow
thinks in hard words again, though it
contradict every thing you said today.”