Nature and Self-Reliance Essay

1. Which of the three tenets of transcendentalism is the most stressed in the two essays? Use specific details from each essay to support your response. Individualism is the tenet of transcendentalism that is most stress in the two essays of Emerson. Individualism is the tenet that is talked about the most in both of the essays. In â€Å"Self-Reliance† the main topic of is to be oneself, and to trust oneself. In addition, in the essay says that one should do what he or she believes is right, not what others believe is right. For example, if a person considers Judaism to be the true religion then he should follow Judaism and not what everyone is following. Also, the essay talks about how an individual should be a nonconformist. A person should not copy what other people do or believe. For instance, if everyone likes to hunt but one person doesn’t then the one individual should not go hunting just to be like the rest. If a person copies others he or she wouldn’t know what to do when there is no one to copy anymore, he or she would have lost themselves. If a person copies others they lose themselves, and their perso nalities. One must always follow what they believe, and what they like they should be independent from what other people believe or like. For instance, if two people think that the answer to a question is A, but another person think it’s C, then the person should stick to his or her answer and not change it because the other person think it’s another answer. Also, Emerson says in the essay that one should not care about what others think of oneself, for example one should not care if people think he or she is bad or good but instead only if care about what one think about himself. For example, if a person likes reading but everyone says that the person is boring because that person likes reading the person should care because that is what he likes. Just like in the essay â€Å"Self-Reliance† the essay â€Å"Nature† also contains the tenet of individualism. In â€Å"Nature† it talks about individualism in a different way that in â€Å"Self-Reliance†, instead of telling the people to believe in them â€Å"Nature† talks about how to find one true self. It says that to find our true self we must go to nature. In nature one  can find peace, and tranquility to look for there true self. For example, many times a person can’t find peace in the city because of the people and the noise, so they have to go to nature to find peace. Nature can give an individual all the answers one needs. Nature helps a man find reason, and faith. Nature gives the individual all the tools one needs to find their true self. 2. Challenge what do â€Å"Self-Reliance† and Nature seem to suggest about Emerson’s opinion of Change? Use details from the essays to support your response. â€Å"Self-Reliance† and â€Å"Nature† suggest that Emerson think of change as something good and bad. Emerson sees change as something good when the person that does it is because that is what he or she considers right. For example, if a person changes religion because he feels the other religions is the correct one then it is a good change. Change is good when one does it for himself and not for anyone else; because once he or she does it for someone else they lose themselves. For instance, if a person that reads a lot stops reading because he stopped liking reading then it is a good change, but if the person stopped reading because people told him to stopped reading then it’s a bad change. Change is good if it’s going to help the person in someway, and if the person can stay true to himself. For example, if a wealthy person is humble lives in a big house and decided to move to a small house then it is a good change but if a poor person lives in a small house and moves to a bigger house to show off then it is a bad change. A change is bad if a person does it for another person. For example, if a person stops singing to be friends with another person then it is a bad change. If a person changes because everyone else is doing something else it is a bad change. For example, if a person likes apples, but no one else does, and because of that the person stops eating apples then it’s a bad change. A change is bad if the person changes because the other people don’t like what the person is doing. For instance, if a person likes to sing but the other people don’t like that person singing and he stops singing because of that then it is a bad change. A change can be good or bad depending on the situation.