self reliance

1. Discuss the meaning of the verse preceding the essay.

• everyone is their own person, and they should have their own thoughts
• the shadows that walk beside us are like the people we let influence the way we think

2. Looking at the entire essay, what does Emerson mean by self-reliance? Objectively summarize Emerson's major points.

• One of Emerson's main points that he kept bringing up was that the need for an individual to avoid conformity and false consistency and follow his or her instincts and ideas. He states that each persons voice can be as strong as the great man of history, saying that as long as you speak your own thoughts then you've already won.

3. Interpret the first sentence. What does every person realize at some moment of his or her education?

• The first sentence,"There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance, " is referring to how some people feel that its unfair of the knowledge some people have, and they envy that about them. 

4. Interpret the following quote, "The eye was placed where one ray should fall, that it might testify of that particular ray."

• That what ever you put your focus on thats going to be your strong point. 

5. What does Emerson mean by the "divine idea which each of us represents"?

• The divine right Emerson mentions is that we have the right to our own thoughts, and that we should just let our natural way of thinking take over, rather than let other shape it for us.

6.  Explain the significance of the "iron string." Why do you think Emerson used iron and not silken, golden, or silver string?

• I think the Iron string is significant because iron is strong and shard, yet it can be formed into many different shapes. Just like iron, you need to be strong in your own thoughts, but you can't let people shape you into something you'r not.

7. Define Transcendentalism.

• Transcendentalism was a time of literature independence, where writers like Thoruea were in rebellion and wrote what they wanted.

8. Interpret this quote, "Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members."

• This quote interprets that society is against the natural way of thinking of manhood, and feel he need to change the way people think to something thats not real, of natural.

9. Explain the quote, "The virtue in most request is conformity. Self-reliance is its aversion."

• What is expected now of people on the way they think or act is all based conformity, and is not really a natural way of thinking, so people are all stuck on this one idea of how things should or shouldn't be that no one is their own person anymore. Yet self-reliance is the key to break away from this robot state of mind. 

10. Interpret the metaphor, "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesman and philosophers and divines."

• This metaphor is saying that peoples mind are controlled by this little mischievous imp that make it feel like they should follow what the statesman says, or what the philosophers had thought.

11. Discuss the use of the simile, "Words as hard as cannon balls."

• I think this refers to how criticism can be hard sometimes, and can have a big effect good or bad.

12. Respond to the Essay. Write a paragraph expressing your reactions to the essay.

This essay was quite challenging for me to follow and stay on track of, but discussing it with the calls made me get a better understanding of it. It was interesting to see how I don't apply Emerson's topic of self reliance to myself, and at first I didn't notice it but now I see how influenced I am by others. I liked how he explained how people are to afraid or quiet to share their own thoughts and live by them, just because that's not how everyone else seems to act.