ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

Detailed explanation-1: -"Self-Reliance” is an 1841 essay written by American transcendentalist philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson. It contains the most thorough statement of one of Emerson’s recurrent themes: the need for each individual to avoid conformity and false consistency, and follow his own instincts and ideas.

Detailed explanation-2: -Biography. Waldo Emerson is truly the center of the American transcendental movement, setting out most of its ideas and values in a little book, Nature, published in 1836, that represented at least ten years of intense study in philosophy, religion, and literature, and in his First Series of essays.

Detailed explanation-3: -In his essay, “Self Reliance, ” Emerson’s sole purpose is the want for people to avoid conformity. Emerson believed that in order for a man to truly be a man, he was to follow his own conscience and “do his own thing.” Essentially, do what you believe is right instead of blindly following society.

Detailed explanation-4: -’Self-Reliance’ challenged Americans to trust their own unique powers and think for themselves. Emerson and his fellow transcendentalists argued that only the self-reliant, intuitive individual was capable of effecting positive and innovative change.

Detailed explanation-5: -Transcendentalism is an American literary, philosophical, religious, and political movement of the early nineteenth century, centered around Ralph Waldo Emerson.