Emerson, Melville and Whitman :: Free Essay Writer

The way I view the world has been greatly affected by my drill this semester. Thought I had read Emerson and Melville before, I never before was able to sound the depths of their work and fully appreciate it. This semester was my first real exposure to Whitman, as well. The best analogy for my new outlook is an image of the universe as a yin-yang it is a complete, unbroken whole within which two polar opposites be constantly in conflict. But more significantly I have taken to heart the doctrine of Self-Reliance, which is one shargond by all cardinal authors.Emerson presents a different system of arresting than I had ever encountered. Throughout my previous education, I was taught to learn whatever was in the book. The only place authoritative thought was accepted was in occasional creative writing assignments, and even then a stylistic formula was required. The sentence from Self-Reliance, A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light which flashes across his mind from within, more than the lustre of the firmament of bards and sages. was a completely new idea to me. My mind originally dismissed the cin one casept from his journals that The dead sleep in their moonless night my business is with the living. . . . But on further reflection, it made sense. Self-reliance is an intimidating concept. Students are taught to externally justify any position we take. If we institute a thesis statement we must find support for it in the crumbling stacks of the library. Yet in the end I have found that self-reliance is the most satisfying way to grapple with life.Melville frequently supports these ideas in his writing. When Ishmael encounters the whale skeleton that a tribe of islanders have elevated to the status of a god, he demonstrates the gravity one should grant to others ideas of religion Cutting me a green measuring-rod, I once more dived within the skeleton. From their arrow-slit in the skull, the priests perceived me taking the alti tude of the final rib. How now they shouted Darst thou measure this our god Thats for us. Aye, priestswell, how long do ye make him, then? But hereupon a fierce contest rose among them, concerning feet and inches they cracked each others sconces with their yard-sticksthe great skull echoedand seizing that lucky chance, I quickly conclude my own admeasurements.