in his essay, “Self-Reliance.” Each author expresses the importance of freedom, the need for self-reliance, and the benefits of isolation through their writings. They both define the self as the center of reality, and the characters of their literature are all individuals who discover inner freedom through solitude and the realization of the self. Each is an example of radical individualism in them by breaking the bonds of community, tradition, and dependence in order to achieve self-realization. In
In Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay “Self-Reliance,” he emphasizes the importance of individualism. He begins his piece by warning man of the danger in envy and imitation. He states, “envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide.” He means to say that by imitating others, one is killing the part of themselves that makes them an individual and unique in the world. Emerson continues on about how one should “trust thyself; every heart vibrates to that iron string.” He is metaphorical in that every heart