Self-reliance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Self-reliance - Essay Example Emerson emphasizes on the need of knowing oneself and capabilities. It has been observed that a man who considers himself genius is often left-out or abandoned by the world. His norms or his customs become strange to the people. Emerson continues with the thought that society is the main influencing factor on the lives of such people who eventually comprise on their values, beliefs and customs to make the world and the society happy. A person should be allowed to live his life which he believes is good for him; anyone who creates a pattern in his life can be considered as defying his nature or his sphere of life. The lines explores that a person should not follow the pattern which is drawn for him by other people. He needs to think challenging steps to explore the beauty of life. Foolish people can only follow the norms and customs without knowing whether they are beneficial for him or not but wise men don’t do that. Wise men follow the logic and rationale behind everything. People pray without knowing the true essence and meaning of the prayers. A prayer is a form of faith that a person has on God. Emerson in his essay has stressed on the need of praying honestly and with all faith. In his essay, â€Å"self-reliance†, he has clearly stated that people pray to get their worldly desires to be fulfilled in a mean and selfish way. Prayers should be free of meanness; they should be pure and genuine. According to Emerson, our prayers are more focused on the fulfillment of our personal means at the cost of others. He states in his essay that our prayers can be exemplified â€Å"as a means to effect a private end is meanness and theft." Only by being self-reliance and determined we can pray with all our honesty. According to him our prayers should not be focused on attaining our personal goals; they should have a wider sphere of benefits for us and for the humanity. A self reliant soul would ask beyond his means from God. As a