Ralph Waldo Emerson and Frederick Douglas in Relation to Self-Reliance Essay

Ralph Waldo Emerson was innate(p) in 1803 in Boston although his family were non wealthy they were well connected, privileged and educated. Emerson attended Harvard, Harvard Divinity School and became a minister interested in such(prenominal) topics as non-conformity, the individual and the soul. Frederick Douglass was born in 1817 in Maryland the son of a break ones back and whiteness art object. He was born into slaveholding, saw his m other precisely a fewer times and did not know his father. Douglass went on to be an abolitionist, an editor of a newspaper, an avid reliever and lecturer.These two manpower couldnt have been from more(prenominal) diverse worlds. They may as well have been from different planets. plot of land walking the green sunlit quads of Harvard, Emerson was fleshing out his esoteric thoughts on the soul, nonconformity of the individual and the subtleties of self-reliance. In contrast, Douglass was in a dark barn universe beaten on his bare flesh by a fell everyplaceseer who held the key to the gate of slavery. This beating took place in venerable of 1833 while Emerson had already written a few of his ideas in his journal for his es tell, Self-reliance by 1832. (Self -Reliance was first published in 1841).Slavery was a subculture set up for the benefits of farmers, plantation avowers and rich city folk who could suffer to buy concourse not hire them plainly buy them. The slaves were strandedMcTeigue 2physic aloney and ment twainy from the rest of the community and the world in revise to principal(prenominal)(prenominal)(prenominal)tain control and keep them within the bounds of the harsh unspoken codes of slavery set up by the their take iners. The codes signed, sealed and delivered by the overseers or the subordinates of the slaves. And when that didnt work they were sold and separated from each family and friends they had.The system of slavery didnt allow and didnt encourage the ontogenesis of the individual person. Man or wo adult male. Instead as Douglass states relating to the slave, It is necessary to darken his moral and mental vision, and, as far as possible, to annihilate the government agency of reason. He must be able to bring out no inconsistencies in slavery he must be made to feel that slavery is right and he can be brought to that unless when he ceases to be a man (Douglass 1790).Douglass transforms the collective mind-set of him the slave to that of an individual, self-reliant man without the ivy clad buildings in which Emerson ruminated, pondered and wrote. For slavery to exist at that place could be no individual man or woman that had ownership rights over his or her own body or mind despite this fairness Douglass escapes from slavery and clearly steers destiny into his homeport of license hitting all the main channelises of Emersons theories on SelfReliance trusting-self, non-conformity and suspicion on the way there.Trusting yourself on the path to Emersons, Self-Reliance, and becoming an individual is one of the main tenets of Emersons writings. A man should learn to detect and watch that glare of light which flashes crosswise his mind from within, more than the lustre of the firmament of bards and sages (Emerson 1334). Frederick Douglasss first gleam of light was in the songs the slaves sang on the way to their masters main house. He describes the songs which wereMcTeigue 3sung in deep tones like hagridden souls as prayers for deliverance from slavery. Douglass states, To those songs I trace my first glimmering of the dehumanizing reference book of slavery (Douglass 1754). A seed was planted and took hold in his soul. He continued to listened for clues along the way to trust and believe.A pivotal luck to trust himself in a new revelation was offered to Douglass while schooling the alphabet and simple words at the home of his new masters in Baltimore. When the father of the house found out that his married woman was teaching the sl ave boy how to read, she was told that for one thing it was against the law. only if the main point of his disapproval was this as told by Douglass, if you teach that nigger how to read, there would be no keeping him. It would always unfit him to be a slave. He would at once compel unmanageable, and of no value to his master. As to himself, it could do him no good . . .It would make him discontented and unhappy (Douglass 1762). Douglass explains that it was in this moment that he understood what the key was from slavery to warrantdom. It was learning to read, write and become an educated man. He trusted this truth. To ingeminate Emerson, To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men,-that is genius (Emerson 1334). In having this truth revealed to him he also later instructed other slaves how to read and write. He knew it wasnt qualifying to be easy from this point on to learn but he did any way he could. He learned from boys on the streets of Baltimore and from his masters childs school books. Trusting himself on this new information was the key plot of land to freedom which firmly planted him on his path to escaping slavery.To speak of non-conformity as other one of the elements of Emersons, Self-Reliance, that gallops to the path of self is to scream to the conformity of slavery. To quote Emerson, What IMcTeigue 4must do is all that concerns me, not what people think. The rule, equally arduous in actual and intellectual life, may answer for the whole distinction between greatness and meanness (Emerson 1337). But to non-conform as a slave was to beaten regularly by the overseer or master and if that didnt work the slave was sold and sent away.In one extreme case Douglass tells the story of an overseer shooting a slave in the face in front of other slaves because the slave didnt get out of a creek when told to by the overseer. When asked by the owner of the plantation why he shot the slave , Douglass recalls the justification, He was stage setting a dangerous example to the other slaves,-one which, if suffered to pass without some such demonstration on his part, would finally lead to the total subversion of all rule and order upon the plantation (Douglass 1758).With these experiences and stories slaves were kept down from entertaining thoughts of freedom or individuality. They conformed not only because it was a way of life it was survival. Non-conformity came at a price even death as just revealed but for a few the risk was worth the price for possible freedom even if it was only one step toward intellectual freedom from a master. In a pivotal event toward breaking away from the mindset of slavery Douglass rises up against one of his masters, Mr. Covey and engages in a physical brawl.Mr Covey was going to tie up Douglass and begin another round of beatings following the first round from the previous day. Not only did Douglass physically beat up Covey, he also told h im that yes he was going to continue the fight because he had been abusing him for the past six months. Douglass explains in his storey that this event gave him confidence and the determination to be free. He states, My long-crushed spirit rose, cowardice departed . . . and I now resolved that, however long I might remain a slave in form, the day had passed forever when I could be a slave in fact (Douglass 1779). Douglass cut across the line that day from conformity to non-conformity.McTeigue 5Douglasss action at laws in the in a higher place example and the way he progresses through his lifes tour embodies this profound paragraph of Emersons whereby he explains that conforming to the usages that have become dead to you . . . scatters your force. It loses your time and blurs the impression of your character (Emerson 1337). He goes on to say that by conforming so much of your life force is interpreted away from your real purpose that no one can detect who you really are. Do you r work, and you shall reinforce yourself (Emerson 1337).Douglass hits the path of non-conformity and never looks back. His life was spent hard at work for the abolitionist movement and the well existence of other slaves still trapped in slavery. Intuition is layered into both elements of Emersons thoughts of trusting ones self and non-conformity as intuition is the soul force that leads us into and out of the sublities of our mind and eventually to our own individual actions. Emerson says about intuition, In that deep force, the last fact tail end which analysis cannot go, all things find their common origin. . . Here is the fountain of action and of thought (Emerson 1341). Intuition is not learned or taught it is there in all people.It can be cultivated and tended to by the individual if they run off to listen, to hear and to trust even it means going against the grain of everyday thought or what someone else might think is right for that individual. As stated earlier in the e ssay Douglass all along seems to be listening and trusting and taking action. But he starts to develop a cognizant understanding of intuition and the soul as he becomes more literate and knowledgeable. In an anthology he reads different passages that as Douglass states, They gave tongue to evoke thoughts of my own soul, which had frequently flashed through my mind, and died away for want of let the cat out of the bagance. . . The reading of these documents enabled me to utter my thoughts (Douglass 1765). Aside from taking actions towards his freedom and being anMcTeigue 6individual man he now is able to articulate and write down his face-to-face thoughts formulating arguments against slavery and other issuings. A flow from his intuition, mind and soul begins to come forth that was there all along. Douglass explains at the risk of being called superstitious, From my earliest recollection, I date the entertainment of a deep conviction that slavery would not always be able to hold me within its soiled embrace and in the darkest hours of my career in slavery, this living word of conviction and spirit of hope departed not from me, but remained like ministering angels to advocate me through the gloom (Douglass 1761).Like divine interventions Douglass pays attention to these unsolicited angles and lets them lead the way towards becoming a free man. These two extraordinary men grabbled with the ideas of individuality and self-reliance simultaneously through two different modes of geographic expedition Emerson intellectually and Douglass experientially. Its like Douglasss narrative is the case direct for Emersons theories on selfreliance. Their studies and paths eventually led them to similar conclusions on the subject although Emersons self-reliance had a more soulful twist and Douglasss self-reliance had a more practical hands-ons twist. These differences stemmed from their different backgrounds and experiences. two these men listened to their intuition, tr usted them selves and were not afraid to be non-conforming and became self-realized free men. But in the case of Frederick Douglass not only did he became intellectually free but physically free from slavery using all the homogeneous tools spelled out in Emersons, Self-Reliance. To end, Douglass shares an exchange with one of his masters, He told me, if I would be happy, I must lay out no plans for the future. He said, if I behaved myself properly, he would take care of me. Indeed, he advised me to complete slackness of the future, and taught me to depend solely up him for happiness. He seemedMcTeigue 7to see richly the pressing necessity of setting aside my intellectual nature, in order to contentment in slavery (Douglass 1792). Douglass flings, deflects and resists each point listening only to his ministering angels until they flew him into the hands of freedom.McTeigue 8Works CitedPerkins, George and Barbara Perkins. The American Tradition in Literature. twelfth ed. New York M cGraw-Hill. 2009. Print.Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas. Perkins and Perkins 17541792. Emerson, Ralph Waldo. Self-Reliance. Perkins and Perkins 1334-1341.