Ralph Waldo Emerson Essay, Research Paper

Nearly two hundred years ago Ralph Waldo Emerson delivered a speech to a group of Scholars, it was his intention to motivate and inspire. He expressed his beliefs in a way that was objectionable to some and encouraging to others. Each man was given a chance to examine his life and the life’s of their predecessors.

Emerson shaped his speech, and bent the words around in a beautiful collage; he quickly established a mood that was felt throughout the room. Scholars understood that he had a very important message to deliver and they prepared for an address like no other.

The speech is difficult and abstract; on the first read it takes you in a million directions giving an impression of understanding. To comprehend “The American Scholar” you should break it into three sections.

First we need to recognize the scholar’s resources: nature, classification, and the presents of spirit. Second, we need to examine the duties associated with being a scholar: trust, honor, and the ability to dedicate ourselves to the institution in which we belong. Third, we need to go beyond our old ways of thinking we need to create a unique culture and traditions distinctive to this new Country.

Emerson explains that nature has a great deal of influence on our minds and bodies, it’s a resource that’s in abundance and untouched, it has no beginning and no ending. We need to understand that there is a direct connection between spirit and nature. Both revolve and exist in neutral space, and until we open our mind and allow it to influence us that’s where it will stay. The thought that spirit and nature exist in each one of us is somewhat perplexing. I feel that the old and the wise easily recognize it and the young find it nearly impossible to obtain, on the other hand I sense that Emerson is empowering the gentleman in the room and encouraging them to find a more spiritual side.

Nature is an important resource to the scholar because through classification our minds are affected in an innovative way, we begin to learn. “To the young mind everything is unique, it stands by itself” as we mature we begin to organize the result is classification. When used with nature, classification helps us build and broaden our view of the world. This holds true for me most when I take a walk into the woods and experience something new; I tend to experience it in deeper and more stimulating way.

Emerson explained that the spirit is within the world, it’s within every living person and thing no matter what category we classify it under. Opening our mind allows outside influence to shape us, it generates new ideas and creates a never-ending source of inspiration. There was a time when I felt that my opinion was best, I became closed-in and my way of thinking was narrow. When I was introduced to a group of people who motivated me I became creative and started to explore my world. During this time I decided to go back to college and make a change in my life.

Their successors taught by the book passing down the same traditions and beliefs assuming there institution would continue unchanged. Emerson wanted to express that dedication, honor, and trust was truly important. Keeping to the old ways and methods were essential to the survival of scholars today.

This was a relatively new Country not quite fifty years old, only one or two generations have had the opportunity to examine and write about it. Little had changed during those years, the same books were used and the same lessons were taught keeping the Country relatively safe and unchanged. Emerson realized that this could be fatal, and made clear the fallowing.

If a book can’t be created with fresh material and reflect the world in which we live then it is stagnant and deadening, the people who read will be uninspired creating far less than their potential. I see this in my time here at Lane Community College; I am the type of person who needs to have the lessons shown to me in a new way, when teachers express their ideas like this I begin to learn.

We are a nation full of inspiration and yet we do nothing about it. We came to this new world to be free, to be different, to pull away from the old and create the new. The future of this country is in your hands, rise to the occasion pull together and become the leaders your fathers wanted you to become. I understand the importance of the above statement and how it needed to be said at that time. I can only hope that the children of today can rise to the occasion and keep this world moving in a positive direction.

The citizens of today should keep the traditions of old sacred, respect the process and trust that knowledge is power, but in the same breath turn inward and let the inspiration be felt by everyone.

Emerson suggested that we should pull away from the traditions of England and create a country distinctive to its people, and help form a culture that is unique to this nation. It seems that this little speech might have taken root in some of the men sitting in the room. It might have even moved through generations ending up with the current conditions of these United States.

In closing: Emerson wanted to inspire the people who sat in the room that day, he felt that Americans needed to develop their own cultural tradition instead of depending on Europe. These men were the leaders of tomorrow but they possessed stagnant ideas, he wanted them to look inwards and be more than a Scholar more than a teacher. Emerson wanted them to start a revolutionary of inspirational proportions. This conclusion is reflective in respects to the way I want to live my life, I am one of those people who rarely take an opportunity and run with it. I do much better when I have a motivator, in a sense Emerson’s speech was just that, motivation.