Vogel
from Self-Reliance
English III
Ralph Waldo Emerson was the founder of the Transcendentalism movement. Emerson’s works
emphasize individualism and people’s quest to break from the world created from illusion or that which
is created by society.
As you re-read each excerpt from Emerson’s essay “Self-Reliance”, answer these questions in the
“Answers, Insights, Quotes, Understanding” column.
You may want to provide a summary of the paragraph by incorporating the answers in paragraph form.
If so, be sure to use quotation marks when you reference Emerson’s text as support for your summary.
Excerpt 1 – “I read the other day…”
According to Emerson, what is genius?
Why do we praise the works of Plato, Moses, and Milton?
What should a man learn to detect and watch for?
Why, then, does a man dismiss those things he should learn to detect and watch for?
What lesson do great works of art give us?
What are we forced to take from someone else? Why?
Excerpt 2 – “There is a time…”
What does Emerson mean by “envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide”?
Break it Down:




Define envy.
Define ignorance.
Define imitation.
Define suicide.
Put it together:
What is lost when one is envious? What is lost when one
imitates?
What comparison to planting corn and individualism does Emerson make?
Break it Down:
What are seeds planted
in? What do seeds need
in order to grow?
Break it Down:
Where do
thoughts/knowledge/learning
happen? How do these grow?
Put it together:
How is tilling the soil and growing plants like thoughts/knowledge/learning?
What does one not know “until he tries”?
Vogel
from Self-Reliance
English III
Excerpt 3 – “Society everywhere…”
What does Emerson mean when he says society is a “joint-stock” company?
Break it Down:
 What do members in a jointstock company do?
 What does this secure?
 What is surrendered?
Put it together:
Joint-stock companies rely on
______________________________ to survive.
Emerson states, “Self-reliance is its (society’s) aversion”. Explain why he says this. (Aversion: strong
dislike; opposition)
What does Emerson mean when he states, “It (society) loves not realities and creators, but names and
customs.”?
Excerpt 4 – “Whoso would be a man…”
Define non-conformist according to your understanding of this paragraph.
Excerpt 5 – “What I must do…”
Emerson states a rule for self-reliance, “What I must do is all that concerns me, not what people think.”
 Why is this rule difficult to follow?

Excerpt 6 – “For nonconformity…”
What causes someone to have a sweet or sour face?
What does this say about society’s rules to conform?
What does this say about nonconformity?
Excerpt 7 – “The other terror…”
Why are people afraid to be nonconformists?
Excerpt 8 – “A foolish consistency…”
Why is “a foolish consistency” compared to a “hobgoblin” or gremlin?
What, according to Emerson, should you do today? Tomorrow?
Why does Emerson mention Phythagoras, Socrates, Jesus, Luther, Copernicus, Galileo and Newton?
What is the connection to individualism and self-reliance in Emerson’s statement, “To be great is to be
misunderstood”?