Blog Task #2: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self Reliance

1. How does Emersons essay capture the American values of the Romantic era? (Individuality, nature,
emotion, reform)

( /4 K /4 I /1 C)

2. How does Emerson view authority, such as the Church or the Government? Use evidence from the
essay to support your answer.

( /2 K / 1 I /1 C)

3. Are there any similarities between Emerson and Twain? What parallels can be drawn between
Self-Reliance and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn?

( /2 K / 1 I /1 C)

4. Analyse the following statements.

- He who would gather immortal palms must not be hindered by the name of goodness, but
must explore if it be goodness. Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.
Absolve you to yourself, and you shall have the suffrage of the world (Emerson, 4).

- It is easy in the world to live after the worlds opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own
(Emerson, 5).

- The other terror that scares us from our self-trust is out consistency; a reverence for our past
act or word, because the eyes of others have no other data for computing our orbit than our
past acts, and we are loath to disappoint them (Emerson, 6).

( / 3 I /1 C)