Anabel Rios

Mrs. Storer
English 3H
1/21/20
Socratic Circle Reflection on Emerson and Thoreau
During our discussion, my inner circle talked about Emerson’s works. We talked about
the essays, Nature and Self- Reliance. The main topics/issues in the text we discussed were about
the lack of appreciation for nature and about our society. This group did well in using evidence
and going into depth. Specifically speaking, when our group discussed Emerson’s essay, Nature,
Sabrina did a good job correlating his essay to our location in San Diego. She said that even
though we live in a beautiful place like San Diego with amazing sunsets and sight seeing
locations, we still have a lack of appreciation for these things despite where we live. Also,
Christian made an interesting point as well for this essay. Christian mentioned how unique it was
that in a sense, Emerson also predicted that even our society today wouldn’t respect nature a lot.
Both Sabrina and Christian went into depth with the discussion of that essay. They both helped
our group understand the point that Emerson was trying to prove to us. Not only that, but our
group did a good job of building off each other’s answers. We continued to give even more
information relating to our topics.
During this discussion, I mentioned how the majority of humans today don’t give their
time or attention to nature. I also talked about Emerson’s essay, Self-Reliance. I said that
Emerson used religious references throughout the paper in order to convince the audience. He
mentions God in his essay and how he doesn’t want cowards to manifest his work. Using that as
my evidence, I said that the reference was impactful because the audience would gather courage
from the paper and try to not stick to conformity. In the discussion, I used evidence. For
example, like I stated before, I used evidence from the Self-Reliance essay. When our group
talked about Emerson’s Nature, my opinion about today’s society not appreciating nature
allowed my other group members to build off of that and further expand the conversation. For
our next discussion, I think I should talk more in order to improve myself in Socratic circles.
1. In Ralph Emerson’s work, from Nature, in order to help realize the importance of nature
he describes the beauty of nature, the lack of appreciation for nature, and his own perspective of
nature.
2. For this “imaginary” essay, one main point would be for the audience to realize how
beautiful nature is, so I would mention the meticulous descriptions that Emerson notes about
nature. The second main point would be for the audience to realize our lack of appreciation for
nature. We unconsciously take nature and its beauty for granted. The last main point would be
the show Emerson’s thoughts about nature. Emerson is someone who respects nature knows how
astonishing it is. By showing Emerson’s perspective of nature, it’ll help the audience realize the
difference of opinions. Eventually, that will lead the audience to a new change in how they view
nature.
3. Personally, I don’t appreciate nature on the daily, but I will give it my attention often. For
me, it is the easiest to appreciate nature when I am alone. For example, if I’m on a run or a walk,
the area and details around me just becomes easier to notice. Because of the text, it helped me
realize how little my appreciation for nature is compared to Emerson. Reading the text didn’t
make me ashamed of myself and my perspective of nature but rather, it encouraged me to show
more respect for it.