Individual and National Identity

Self-Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson page 366

1. According to Emerson, why should people trust themselves?
2. How does Emerson believe people should be affected by the way others perceive them?
3. How does Emerson support his claim that “to be great is to be misunderstood”?
4. Based on this essay, what is your assessment of Emerson’s character?

Nature – page 364

5. What does Emerson mean when he says that in the woods “a man casts off his years”?
6. What does Emerson mean when he describes himself as a “transparent eyeball”?
7. Find evidence in this essay to support the Transcendentalist belief in the unity of the human spirit and the natural world.
8. Explain why you do or do not accept his ideas about Nature.