Emerson

Emerson Emerson Reflection Emerson has many themes that run through his writings. The one that I see as the strongest and most important is his focus on the individual. This has come up in all of our readings and was the main focus in a few as well, such as “The American Scholar,” “The Divinity School Address,” and “Self-Reliance.” In each of these, Emerson stresses the importance of individualism and how it will make for a more whole and better person. He also believes that when becoming an individualist, one must take his education into their own hands, becoming independent in their way of thinking as well. Each of these characteristics in a person will help build the ideal character, which Emerson calls “The American Scholar.” In “The American Scholar” Emerson focuses on the ideal character type, which he then uses to create a vision of the function for higher education and to critique contemporary life. Emerson believes that the idea character is one that is a reformer, a non-conformist, an independent thinker, and an inventor. He strongly believes that we must be individualist, people that will think and act on their own, and students, must, think, own, life, emerson, society, character, should, independent, american, scholar, one, learning, education, doing, becoming, become, way, through, taking, schools, school, lives, just, individual, ideal, idea, hands, going, conforming, come, believes, being, today