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¶ … trek the newly paved cement path that weaves throughout the vicinity, I can't help but gaze in wonderment. There was once a time where this vast land was an open field, I imagine perhaps a field of daisies and sun flowers. As I lay in the soft grass, I notice that it is not soft, it is full of life which makes it seem like a green cushion. The mortality of the grass was something that I have not noticed before, I always knew that grass was a living object, but I never understood that it is actually alive.
Rolling around in the grass with my dog, I stumbled into some coarse, prickly, lifelessly hay-like grass. This was when I began to realize that the lively grass would bounce back every time I rolled off of it. This illustrated to me that like the grass, as humans, when something brings us down or pushes us down, we learn from the experience and we are able to bounce back up. From the simplicity of greenery, it showed me the absolute beauty and appreciation of being alive. I notice some trees nearby and I notice the rigorous swaying...
I grabbed the leaf by the stem, then I clench the leaf in my hands, and it crumbles. This life-less maple leaf floating without direction, free from its bind to the branch gave me a sigh of relief. From these observations, it shows that life can be wonderful, and sometimes it can be binding and tedious to the creative mind.
Question 2
I certainly can relate to Thoreau's philosophy. The natural and simple attitude that he presented provides a breath of fresh air in today's very busy and stressful society. Much like Thoreau, I appreciate the individualistic and slightly rebellious attitudes he has pronounced. We both share an affinity for nature and a return to self-reliance and personal interpretations of the universe. I definitely would have liked him and would have sought out his friendship because of our…
This may seem cruel and ungenerous, but Emerson would argue that the most generous thing that can be done for people is to help them become individuals. That will benefit them more than tossing a dollar in the alms box. Hence, through his essay, he hopes to encourage others on their road to self-reliance. The last few lines of "Self-Reliance" call on the readers to be brave and to trust
Another point that Emerson presents in his essay is his critique of people's conformity to social norms and rules. For him, conformity marks the death of progress in human society because it hinders individuals to explore and discover their true 'selves,' and hone their skills and knowledge that they consider necessary for their personal development. He further explains why society condones non-conformity or the pursuit of one's self-interest: "For nonconformity
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
Self-Reliance Explain at least 3 different sources of suffering in Leo Tolstoy's the Death of Ivan Ilych The Death of Ivan Ilych by Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy is a novel penned in 1886 by a great Russian author and perhaps an even greater moralist in regards to the essence of suffering. There are three core aspects of suffering delineated over the course of the novel, namely the suffering of the physical body
Self-Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Specifically, it will explain Emerson's main idea in the essay. "Self-Reliance" is a celebration of man's creative thought and a quest for harmony in life and the world. Man should listen to his own mind to understand the minds of all humankind. Emerson wrote his essay to introduce people to his philosophy of transcendentalism. He believed man was a creative being, and he had to
Self-Reliance....Thoughts on the Frontier in American History. Reaction paper: Self-reliance The concept of self-reliance is extremely important in the discourse of politics today, as people argue that self-reliance from the federal government is a very important value. For Ralph Waldo Emerson, however, the world had a different meaning and resonance. First and foremost, self-reliance for Emerson meant the citizen was true to his or her ideals, versus conforming to the ideas