Self reliance and the significance of the frontier in American history

¶ … Self-Reliance / 2nd Topic the Significance of the Frontier in American History

Ralph Waldo Emerson's essay "Self-Reliance" relates to how it is essential for people to have a complex understanding of themselves before they embark on a journey meant to enrich their knowledge. In order to raise one's self-esteem, the respective individual must focus on his or her personality and try to ignore outside influences. Emerson is right in claiming that people need to trust themselves in order to feel good about themselves and in order to experience positive results when interacting with others.

To a certain degree, one might be inclined to believe that Emerson is too optimistic in his appreciation of men. Surely, his strategies are not wrong and it seems perfectly normal that he wants people to acknowledge all of their qualities. However, even with the fact that he states that all people are geniuses, he fails to emphasize that it is very difficult for an individual to exercise this intelligence and that most end up failing to do so. Emerson emphasizes that trusting oneself is one of the most important acts that a person needs to perform in order to achieve success.

One of the most intriguing concepts that Emerson relates to regards society's tendency to negatively influence the masses.

This is actually true, taking into account that many individuals end up abandoning their principles and allowing their thinking to be shaped by others. People who want to have a unique personality virtually need to employ anti-social attitudes and have to concentrate on refraining from being a part of the masses.

The writer highlights how people have come to be influenced by others by demonstrating that most people believe that it is better for them to quote important figures than it is for them to express their own point-of-view.

He is right in thinking that people have lost their sense of personal identity in order to put across behaviors that provides them with social acceptance.

2. Frederick Jackson Turner's first chapter in "The Significance of the Frontier in American History" makes it possible for readers to understand the writer's perspective concerning westward expansion in the U.S. And the effects that this expansion has had on the American people as a whole. By claiming that "American development has exhibited not merely advance along a single line, but a return to primitive conditions on a continually advancing frontier line, and a new development for that area" (Turner), Turner practically says that he is unsympathetic concerning this expansion and that it is principally responsible for the fact that the American nation as a whole is not experiencing a constant form evolution.