If I am being completely honest, reading this essay was a bit difficult for me. The length and the way of writing caused the words to sort of jumble together on my first few attempts and I wasn’t able to finish it the first few times. However, after reading it again and actually making it to the end, I thank I have developed a bit more of an understanding for what Emerson was saying through this.
My main takeaway might not be what his main point was, as I am still unsure of what exactly it was, but what stood out to me the most throughout this reading was his focus on unity. He constantly referenced the way in which society is broken up, citing that as the reason for division within communities. He says that we do have a common ground and roots, yet we tend to stay divided in separate groups. One of his main arguments throughout this essay, I think, is the argument for the complete unity of the country. He says that through individuals creating and thinking and passing along information, we have the potential to unite through scholarship.
Something I noticed while reading this was how Emerson seems to reference one of Henry David Thoreau’s ideologies, which is that of the Three Chairs. I am not extremely familiar with Emerson and his inspirations, but regardless he did bring up the same idea as Thoreau. Thoreau’s Three Chairs references his belief that in order to be a truly be a well socialized and well thought out individual, it is important to embrace and act upon different methods of reflection. The chairs represent, one for solitude, two for friendship, and three for society. Thoreau emphasizes just how important each of these ‘chairs’ are and within this essay, Emerson does too. Emerson’s main focus is on the unity of society as a whole and how important doing things for your community is (chair three), but he also describes just how important the ideas of others (chair two) through more individualized groups and literature and the practice of solitude and self reflection (chair one) are. He speaks a lot about how important it is for a scholar to be introverted in a sense. He believes that the only true important thoughts come from a place of self reflection and not from the inspiration of others.
Once again, I am not sure how accurate what I pulled from the essay was, but this is what I understood of it!
Hi Marley! I am completely with you on the essay being a difficult read, I definitely had to read it over a few times and google some things. I feel like he offers individualism as a way to unite a nation. Instead of everyone just being copies of one another, they can bounce of different ideas with one another. I like how you brought up Henry David Thoreau’s ideologies, I did not even think of that! Thank you for sharing, loved reading your ideas!
Hello Marley! I enjoyed reading your take on The American Scholar. I think you definitely had the right interpretation of it. Specifically when you mention the interconnectedness of society as a whole. I think his point was to imply that we are all one and the only way to evolve as a group and individually is to do it in community. Overall, I enjoyed the read but I agree with the essay being a bit difficult due to the length and verbatim.
Hi Marley, I agree with you on the essay being a difficult read; a lot of the pre-2000s essays and literary works tend to share that characteristic. I’ve only skimmed through part of it because I was short on time, but to add on to what our classmates said on this post, the run-down of this big block of text is “strength in numbers.” While it wouldn’t be possible to unite an entire country at once (it would take a miracle to do that), I do agree with Emerson that in order for us to learn effectively it would take another person willing to learn with us. Have you heard of nature and nurture? Nurture is the growth/knowledge we gain from a learning environment (e.g. the pedagogical format of this class) and nature is what helps us sustain that growth/knowledge. I think that is what Emerson is trying to communicate with us: that we are one, yet we seek each other’s knowledge in order to evolve as a whole.