George Roddy

Ms. Storer
English 3 Honors American Literature: Block 4
January 22, 2020
Socratic Circle Reflection on Emerson and Thoreau
When I was in the inner circle, my group had very thoughtful and insightful remarks
regarding Emerson’s Nature and Self Reliance. I felt that our facilitator, Louis, did an effective
job as he tried to include everyone in the discussion and asked follow up questions to deepen the
understanding of the key concepts. For example, I believe Louis made an insightful connection
when he related the works of Emerson to a concept we learned in Campus Ministry, which was
moral relativism. Moral relativism is truth relative to an individual. Alex built on to what Louis
stated and gave his opinion of how moral relativism relates to the transcendentalism. This
connection was effective because when Louis and Alex spoke of the relationship between the
two terms, it helped me deepen my understanding of transcendentalism, which in turn deepened
my understanding of Emerson’s works. When I was in the outer circle, I felt as if the discussion
was not as productive as the first circle. The facilitator seemed to not take the discussion as
seriously as Louis and there was not follow up questions after individuals stated their opinions.
During the discussion, I spoke twice. I believe that my participation of speaking two
times was adequate because I was only in the circle once since I had to leave early for a game.
The first time I spoke, I shared one of Emerson’s ideas which I thought was true in light of my
own experiences. The idea I spoke about was how Emerson sees God in nature. I spoke about
how I see the beauty in nature because I try to appreciate every aspect of nature and reflect on
the detail God put into forming the world. The second time I spoke, I built off Sofia’s claim of
how Emerson’s religious background impacted his writing. I stated how Emerson’s religious
background is shown through his writing. When Emerson talks about nature, he relates it to
God’s work. To support this claim, I shared to the circle when Emerson states, “If the stars
should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore; and preserve for
many generations the remembrance of the city of God which had been shown!” (Emerson 191).
In this quote, it exemplifies how Emerson’s religious background had a significant effect in his
writings as he would relate stars with the city of God. After finishing my thought, I invited
Louis to speak, because since he was the facilitator, he had not expressed his opinion on the
question and I felt as if he wanted to say something but was waiting for someone to ask him for
his thoughts. For the next Socratic circle, I plan to be there for the whole class to speak and
contribute more in order to share my thoughts. I can improve by giving quotes for every claim I
state. Also, I realized that it is fine if there are seconds of silence after I speak to allow the circle
to process my thoughts.
Thesis- In Emerson’s Nature and Self Reliance Transcendentalism is exemplified through
the concepts of attaining solidarity, trusting oneself, and how one views nature.
For my first body paragraph, I would focus on Nature and how one can attain solidarity.
For my first quote, I would talk about when Emerson states, “I am nothing, I see all.” This shows
how in order to find oneself they must lose themselves first. For my second quote I would speak
of how one can find solidarity in the starts. My second body paragraph would focus on Self
Reliance on how one should trust oneself. My first quote would regard how the most important
realization an individual must have is they must be able to trust themselves. My second quote
would speak of how trusting oneself is important when trying to become more independent. For
my third body, I would combine both Nature and Self Reliance on the concept of how one views
nature. My two quotes would stem from both stories’ examples of how babies and children are
intuitively aware of their emotions and accept nature rather than trying to manipulate it.
The concept of trusting oneself, displayed in Self Reliance, connects to my life in
multiple ways as I am constantly doubting myself. One example of trusting myself is when I was
taking my religion final last semester. Leading up to the exam, my teacher informed the class
that the final will be more critical thinking as oppose to facts. Since I was used to religion being
a fact-based class (quiz and test wise), this was somewhat alarming. On the day of the test, I was
extremely nervous since I knew that I had to attain at least a B on the Final to maintain an A in
the class. Although I studied extensively, I was tempted to cheat on the final to assure getting an
A in the class. However, I maintained to constantly remind myself to have trust in myself. I had
faith that all the hours I put into studying for the exam were going to pay off. Fortunately,
trusting myself worked as I did all the problems without cheating and I maintained my A in the
class.