Reading guide for Ralph Waldo Emerson

Word process your responses.

1. Read and reflect on the introductory notes for Ralph Waldo Emerson. Which of the authors

on our syllabus were influenced by Emerson?

2. Do a quick search for the term transcendentalism and define it in your own words.

3. Read “Self-Reliance.”

4. Explain: “In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts: they come back

to us with a certain alienated majesty.”

5. Explain the image of the kernel of corn.

6. Paraphrase and explain the image of the joint-stock company.

7. Explain how Emerson defines nonconformist.

8. According to Emerson, why is it best for a person not to conform?

9. According to Emerson, how does the world treat the nonconformist?

10. Explain in the context of the essay: “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds,

adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.”

11. Explain in the context of the essay: “But now we ar a mob. Man does not stand in awe of

man, nor is the soul admonished to stay at home…but it goes abroad to beg a cup of water of

the urns of men.”

12. How ought one to pray, according to Emerson?

13. What is his opinion of travel?

14. What does he say characterizes a cultivated man?