Thomas Mazzaferro
Professor Engel
American Renaissance
25 February 2019
Balance of Our Being
In his essay, “Self-Reliance,” Ralph Waldo Emerson believes that true happiness and enlightenment will come to those who trust only themselves and their intuition. He argues that imitating others or the past will only result in a complete death of originality. However, can undeniable self reliance really exist in our society? At what point in our early lives can we become independent beings, and no longer rely on parental support? Are we able to be educated without the assistance of others? I believe it is impossible for someone to be completely self-reliant in our world. Throughout our early lives and childhood, we are reliant on our caretakers. In education, we rely on our mentors to teach us. Even whole generations are reliant on the era that came before theirs. In the following essay, I will break down how self-reliance is impossible within childhood, education, and society.
In order to grow and learn, we mimic our surroundings from a young age. The only way we are able to learn to speak, eat, and behave is based on the actions of those around us. When we are all infants, we rely on the world to teach us how to live within it. Even as we grow older, there are many aspects of life that would be impossible without some reliance on others, especially parents or guardians. Emerson states, “I suppose no man can violate his nature. All the sallies of his will are rounded in by the law of his being…”(113). This “law of being” mentioned describes the intrinsic rules that rest within each of our subconscious minds. Social norms and unspoken laws of society keep us all from straying too far from civilized life. I believe this is a clear contradiction to Emerson’s main ideas. Whether we deny it or not, we are all reliant on these social norms we were commanded to follow as children. Could a person deny the fact that they have to wear clothes, and claim themselves to be totally self-reliant, as they reject the social norm of being dressed? Emerson clearly does not wish for our species to evolve into separated, naked outcasts, and I speculate that he realized we cannot fully deny these rules. We must imitate to some extent, in order to live normal and healthy lives. He even later states, “We pass for what we are. Character teaches above our wills”(113). The true inner self we have subconsciously been molded into will always prevail over whoever we desire to be.
Another aspect of life in which I believe self-reliance to be impossible is education. We are completely incapable of pursuing any knowledge without the assistance of others. Even when reading a book alone in one’s room, we are still relying on the author to lay his knowledge out on the pages before us. In fact, it occurred to me that I was relying on Emerson to explain to me how to no longer rely on others. His essay itself may be self-reliant, written entirely from Emerson’s own thoughts and beliefs, but as readers and students, we rely on his writing in order to understand this concept. Emerson famously claims that “There is a time in every man’s education when he arrives at the conclusion that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide”(110). He believes that true knowledge comes from the honest work of a man producing original thought. Although I understand his desire for individuality, I cannot agree with this quote. This quote denounces imitation and envy, which both can serve as a powerful driving force for a young writer. We envy our idols and long to be as perfect as they seem to be. Imitating the work of others can in fact lead to mindless copying, but without the ability to build on the work of others, we may have not gotten this far as a species. I believe finding just the right amount of imitation and envy in one’s work will have no negative impact on originality.
Society will always undergo great change, just as it did throughout Emerson’s time and ours. He relates society to a wave, although it will always be made up of water, it crashes on the shore in a different way every time. He explains this metaphor, “The persons who make up a nation to-day, next year die, and their experience dies with them”(120). This “experience” he speaks on are the ways in which this person has changed society. Emerson believes that this endless change in society is a direct result of the self-reliance held by the powerful and intelligent people of each generation. Their unique thoughts and beliefs are accepted by their society, until the wave recedes and those values die out and are replaced. In my opinion, human beings have built upon the past since the beginning of time. The Vietnam generation greatly opposed the war, not because of some sporadic thought, but in response to past mistakes and memories of terrible conflict. Each generation has taken what they want from the last, and improved their own “wave,” until the next “wave” can improve them further. We are reliant on the mistakes of the past and the lessons our ancestors learned the hard way.
Total self-reliance seems to be a far-fetched concept. As much as I find myself disagreeing with him, I still believe Emerson to be very correct in much of his essay. He is not asking us to completely deny social norms, forget past generations and ensure we live differently from every single person around us. However, he asks us to find self reliance in our lives, whenever we can. Perhaps self-reliance is not meant to be absolute. We should find the greatest balance we can, never rely too much on the outer, and never too much on the inner. Emerson states, “It is easy to see that a greater self-reliance must work a revolution in all the offices and relations of men; in their education; in their pursuits; their modes of living; their association; in their property; in their speculative views”(117). Emerson is asking us to attempt to find individuality within each aspect of our lives. He longs for Americans to question, to deny, and to change. True individuality and a unique state of being will be found through balance. Find that balance and stay true to thyself, consider the thoughts of others, and live to be you.
Works Cited
Emerson, Ralph Waldo. “Self-Reliance.” Nation of Letters: A Concise Anthology of American Literature. Volume 1. Second Edition. Edited by Cushman, Stephen and Paul Newlin. Brandywine Press. 1998. 2005. Pages 110-120.
THOMAS MAZZAFERRO 