Self-Reliance

Here are my four picks of Emerson quotes from "Self-Reliance" and my interpretations of the quotes.

"Speak your latent conviction, and it shall be the universal sense..."
Speak your mind, and people will listen to you

"Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of everyone of its members."
Society is resistant to change, and people will do anything to stop the new ideas of each of its members.

"Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind."
In the end, nothing matters except for your own integrity and thoughts.


"What I must do, is all that concerns me, not what people think."
You must always think and act for yourself and not let the actions and opinions of others influence you against your own will.



The quote of the four that I chose was "Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind" because this quote can be applied to every factor and element of life. If we are what we believe in, then we can live with ourselves and reach for something greater than ourselves because we are following our own guidelines for living and doing what we believe ir right. If we do not follow what we believe in and exist how we want to exist, the point of life itself is lost. This quote symbolizes what can happen to us if we lose track of who we are and our awareness of society around us.
An example of what could in theory happen to us is displayed in the novel, 1984, by George Orwell. In this novel, society loses track of individualism and thinking for itself, and as a result, falls under the control of a dominating government that keeps it isolated from the rest of the world. The biggest crime of all that one can commit in this society is thoughtcrime, which is when someone thinks for themself. The protagonist of the story is eventually tortured an then killed because he commits thoughtcrime dares to think differently than the rest of his brainwashed society. This story is such a good example of how we must, until the very end, not allow others to control our thoughts, or we will lose sight of everything that is important to us and everything that makes us who we are.

It just goes to show how important our own thoughts are, and that no one can take them away from us unless we let them. If all else fails, we will always have our own thoughts, our own ideas. Out of this comes hope, and if we lost track of thinking for ourselves, all would be lost. And if we can't think for ourselves and believe in our thoughts, how can we expect anyone else to do the same?

Emerson- Gifts

According to Emerson, how should gifts be given? Received?

The first rule that comes with giving gifts is that, outside of necessity, they must come from the heart. The best gift that can be given is one that is entirely personal and represents something between the giver and the receiver. It is a connection between the two people that cane be symbolized in whatever it is that is given. For this reason, a lot of the time, a gift is not something that is materialistic or can be physically given. A gift is given with the best intentions and with emotion. It is not something that is merely given for the sake of giving something.

Receiving a gift can be even trickier than giving one. The key is to receive a gift as graciously as possible, but without flattering your benefactor. That is really the only way to receive a gift.

What social commentary does Emerson offer here?

Emerson states that a lot of gifts and the way society perceives how we should react to them are wrong. He brings out the importance in more than just the materialistic value of gifts and declares that they should have an emotional value to them too. He continues on by saying that despite all the "gratitude" people show towards one another when receiving gifts, the gift givers are still in some danger of being "bitten by the mouth that they fed." It is simply human nature. It appears as if Emerson is trying to state that we are a "what have you done for me lately" society.

What is he critiquing?

Emerson is critiquing the way in which society treats gifts and how we respond when things are given to us or we give something to others. We expect nothing at first, but when we receive something something, we expect everything. He critiques throughout the entire piece as to why we are such an extreme society. "Our tokens of compliment and love are for the most part barbarous." "We ask the whole. Nothing less will content us." "We do not quite forvie a giver. The hand that feeds us is in some danger of being bitten." Emerson goes on and on about how people do not do enough when gifts are involved. It is clearly apparent that he doesn't think gifts are given or received well, and this is his manual on doing it correctly.