Emerson Response

How does (and should) a person define his/her place in society? (what does Emerson mean by "society" anyhow?)

A person should define his/her place in society by being an individual. By being an individual, he/she would not be conforming to groups. Emerson states when a person conforms to a group, he/she loses their own personality and has changed their "uniqueness" to the personalities and beliefs of the groups that person has joined. " The objection to conforming to usages that have become dead to you is, that it scatters your force. It loses time and blurs the impression of your character." (23) In this quote, Emerson writes on conformity and how when people conform to society, or to a particular group of people, the real personality and morals of the person is distorted into the beliefs of the groups. The characteristics of the person changes after conforming to a specific group because it changes that person's beliefs on what they should and should not believe in. When Emerson talks of society, he is describing a group of people that have certain beliefs and have sets of norms that everyone in that group has to follow. When someone does not follow a certain norm, they can be outcasted by that group of people, also known as society. Emerson also writes about the people who are outcasted can end up successful due to their new and enlightened ideas. "Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood." (25) Emerson speaks of that is acceptable to be a non-conformist because even though these great people were outcasted almost their entire lives, they have made extreme impacts on life today.

-Z