self reliance
... . Taking the piece by Emerson on self-Reliance, he describes his vision of the individual, a man dependent on himself and refusing to conform to social standards and expectations. The individual, according to Emerson, stands alone against the wave of society, listening to his own heart and disregarding the thoughts of others. He dismisses any inter-personal connection that holds humanity together in families, friendships, and nations, arguing that man's only true support is himself. The true individual will follow his own path, and not look into the past or to other people for help; he will be a monument to himself and exclude any ideas that are not his own. Emerson envisions this individual as an ideal man, but any man that truly follows only his advice will suffer extreme consequences, as would society as a whole. Each of Emerson's most valued qualities in individuals go against human nature, forcing people to leave their comfortable lives and embark on a hard to endure journey for little or no apparent reward. Although men can be independent, they must also depend on each other for essential human functioning in contrast to Emerson's ideal and isolated individual. The book “Enders Game” illustrates Emerson’s view on self-reliance to a certain extent. The main character Ender Wiggin is an example of how a person can be pushed to be totally self-reliant and not to rely on any other person. But in order to be totally self reliant Ender was shaped, molded and influenced by other characters in the book. These archetypes made Ender more self-reliant although a lot of the decisions that he made were independent decisions. . He is faced with many challenges and obstacles are placed in his path and he has to make a lot of decisions which would define how self confident and self trustworthy he is (which are also attributes to self-reliance). To achieve self reliance we must be able to be positively influenced by others in society. . This showed me that although self reliance is about being independent, we should seek help from others when needed and we should allow for people and experiences to positively influence our life. This is one way where I would disagree with Emerson when he says that we should be totally non conformists and that we should be dependant on ourselves and not conform to society. In modern living humankind is designed by nature to cooperate and interact, and forcing an individual to separate from society and face the scorn of the majority deprives him of belongingness and happiness. We must be independent while still allowing ourselves to be meticulously influenced by personal experience and by others hence going back to my definition-“trusting oneself through struggle and fears without isolating oneself completely from the positive influences of family, friends and society.” In my own personal experience I have learnt to be more self-reliant. As a family we moved to the United States of America and this was a big change in my life. . The thoughts that cluttered my mind were those of whether I would be accepted in this new environment and whether I would have the self confidence to trust myself in this totally new environment. I arrived at school on the first day and had to find my way around the school. Slowly I got used to being independent in this new setting and school. I made a lot of new friends and this influenced my self-confidence positively. I became more self reliant and this was helped by the influence of others in the school and by this new experience. The experience of making a lot of new friends and gaining more confidence in myself, had a large influence on me being more self-reliant. I also had to rely on myself to find my way around the school. This helped me to trust myself more. Going back to my definition on self-reliance “trusting oneself through struggles and fears”, this experience helped me to support my definition on self-reliance. So in life we will experience struggles and fears but we must be able to trust ourselves in these situations in order to be more self-reliant. The proverb “doubt whom you will but never doubt yourself” supports my definition that we should trust ourselves. It supports my definition quite strongly. We should trust ourselves in all situations. People often speak about having instincts and intuitions. It is important that we trust ...