The American Scholar Essays & Research Papers

“The Great Lawsuit” by Margaret Fuller and “The American Scholar” by Ralph Waldo Emerson: Comparative Analysis

The American Scholar

Time and space are two valuable aspects of life. Depending on the person and their feelings one can perceive time differently. “Sitting through Economics 101 on Friday afternoon while the professor drones on over various charts and graphs can feel like weeks, whereas spring break spent frolicking in the dun on Miami Beach seems over before you’ve finished your first margarita”(Space/Time). In the theory toolbox, it explains that to some people “…time is a luxury” and for others “…time is...

2 Pages 948 Words

The American Scholar: Analysis of American Democracy and Its Unique Pathway

American Identity The American Scholar

Ralph Waldo Emerson, a prolific writer of the Transcendental era, suggests that American democracy should progress through the individual part of a whole opposed to the largely popular idea that it takes a group of many. In his address titled “The American Scholar,” Emerson hopes to obstruct the present American democracy “in which the members have suffered amputation from the trunk, and strut about so many walking monsters, – a good finger, a neck, a stomach, an elbow, but never...

1 Page 344 Words

Emerson and His Philosophy in The American Scholar: Biography, Ideas and His Thoughts about Unique Path for the United States

American Identity Ralph Waldo Emerson The American Scholar

Over the course of a lifetime, many human beings are faced with challenges that shape them and opportunities to shape others. Ralph Waldo Emerson is a man who experienced much tragedy, including the premature death of many close family members beginning early in his childhood. Growing up, he felt “imprisoned in streets and hindered from the fields and woods amidst the busy commercial activity” (“Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Childhood”). These and other occurrences have helped him develop the philosophies he has...

4 Pages 1640 Words

The American Scholar: Culture of Transcendence Brought Up in the Essay of Ralph Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson The American Scholar

People including Americans should be themselves, naturally humans are good and have limitless potential. Emerson argued Americans should stop looking to the Europeans for inspiration. He believed that they should create their own distinct culture carried through transcendentalist ideas. Which is followed through by the American Scholar because they are actively seeking knowledge for themselves and trying to attain a higher understanding of life. This way it leads them to their own thoughts and style that’s uniquely American. Emerson first...

1 Page 403 Words