The Role Of Conformity In Self-Reliance, By Ralph Waldo Emerson

Throughout Self-Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson, a major concept is negativity toward conformity. Emerson was born in the early 1800s and grew up during the age of transcendentalism. Non-conformity was a key idea in transcendentalism, a philosophy which Emerson was a significant contributor to. It was believed that self reliance is how humans function at their best. Non-conformity mentioned in Self-Reliance creates unnecessary conflict and leads to a stagnant society
Non-conformity creates a large amount of conflict with little reasoning. Emerson believes that if “a great man is coming to eat at my house. I do not wish to please him; I wish that he should wish to please me” (Emerson, 139). Emerson talks about how leaders should have to prove themselves before people follow. He refers to conformity on the small scale in this example as he refers to a great man eating at his …show more content…
My goal in life is to become an epidemiologist because I will be able to affect billions of lives in a helpful way. The current way science is going, my generation could be the one that cures AIDS, the flu and find a way to effectively defeat cancer. I could be the one to cure the AIDS epidemic, but nobody would know if my brother had not been there to show me the wonders of science. If I had no role model, I could be sitting out on the street doing drugs. However, because I conformed and my brother’s interest has become my own, I now strive in school for the 1.1 million people who die each year because of AIDS. (U.S. Department of Health) I study hard so the UN will not have to spend billions of dollars on helping AIDS victims but instead on helping build schools across the globe. (Asante) I do my best now so the 1.8 million children do not have to worry about whether they will live to adulthood. (U.S.) Emerson believes that conformity will cause stagnation but in an ironic twist, causes