1、浅析爱默生的论自助人生自主的源泉AbstractEmerson, Ralph Waldo is an outstanding American writer in the nineteenth century. His work Self-Reliance is an important and influential work which encourages a man to be confident and independent. Through the analysis and research of Emerson and his works, the thesis explore
2、s four main ideas in the work, including “The Confidence” , “The Independence” , “The Personality” , “Showing no Sympathy to the Poor”, of which “The Confidence” is the core point in this thesis. Based on the research of the four ideas, the thesis discusses the enlightenments on todays society, incl
3、uding the enlightenments on the confident and optimistic attitudes towards life, the promotion of females self-reliance, the influence on individuals success and a countrys prosperity.Key WordsSelf-reliance; Emerson; enlightenment摘 要拉尔夫华尔多爱默生是美国十九世纪著名的作家， 论自助是其极具影响力的一部作品，也是一部激励人们自信、独立的作品。论文从分析、研究爱默生
4、及其作品出发，探索了作品中的四种主要思想，包括“自信” 、 “独立” 、 “个性” 、 “拒绝对穷人的同情” ，其中， “自信”是论文的核心。在研究作品主要思想的基础上，论文探讨了作品的主要思想对当今社会的启迪和影响，包括对乐观自信生活态度的启迪、对女性自助思想的促进、对个人成功的影响及对国家繁荣与富强的影响。关键词爱默生； 自助 ； 启迪IntroductionEmerson, Ralph Waldo was one of the most outstanding American writers in the19th century; he experienced much in his
5、whole life. His Self-Reliance is an influential work which deeply attracts many readers. “Believe in Oneself” is the main idea expressed and analyzed in the work. In Self-Reliance, there exist four kinds of important thoughts. The first kind of thought is “The Confidence”. Emerson advocated that a m
6、an must show his opinion confidently and bravely in spite of different ideas. “The Independence” is the second kind of important thought which is expressed in Self-Reliance. A man should keep himself firmly but not be easily influenced by environment. The third kind of thought is to keep personality
7、, which is closely related to the confidence and the independence. From Emersons opinion, a man must keep his personality and conform to his own principles. “Showing no Sympathy to the Poor” is the fourth kind of thought in the work. It shows that why the poor are poor is mainly due to their backwar
8、d thinking. Showing help to this kind of people means doing harm to them. All these ideas in Emersons Self-reliance have enlightenments on todays society. They help people take confident and optimistic attitudes towards life. These important thoughts enlighten the female to be confident and strive f
9、or their social status. Besides, they are crucial for individuals success. Each man who possesses the thoughts is easy to make progress and achieve success. Moreover, a countrys prosperity is established on the basis of confidence and independence.I. A Brief Introduction to Emerson and His Self-Reli
10、anceA. Emerson, Ralph WaldoEmerson was one of the most outstanding American writers in the 19th century. He was born in a clergymans family in Boston in 1803 and raised by his mother and aunt. America was lively but disordered when he was born. Some people were aware of the appearance of new power,
11、but nobody could express it clearly. He entered Harvard University when he was 14 years old. During this period of time, he read a large numbers of books about Britain romanticism and enriched his thoughts. Three years later, he graduated and became a teacher for two years. In 1826, he entered semin
12、ary of Harvard and formally appointed as priest in 1829. However, he resigned 3 years later for two reasons, that is, he was unsatisfied with the dogma and his wife died of illness. Then he traveled around Europe and got to know some famous writers. He was deeply influenced by romanticism and gradua
13、lly formed his own transcendentalism. He returned to his country in 1834 and then settled with his second wife in Concord. In the time following, he published Nature that includes almost all his important ideas. From that time on, he made addresses everywhere publicly and gradually became a celebrat
14、ed scholar in America. Emerson always held a small party with his friends and made discussion about theology, philosophy and sociology. Such kind of party was called transcendentalism club at that time. Naturally, Emerson became the leader of transcendentalism and was responsible for brining transce
15、ndentalism to England.Emerson collected all his speech materials and made a book called Essays, including Self-reliance, Love, and Friendship and so on. Emersons Essays speaks highly of the man who should trust their own suggestion. He advocated that a man should develop the national pride and oppos
16、ed following the others saying. Almost all his speeches made a deep influence on Americas national civilization. In 1837, he published a famous speech which declared that the American literature was separated from Britain literature. He was also the spokesman of transcendentalism. Emerson abandoned
17、the thought which takes god as the centre. He raised the idea that the man could know the truth by instinct, so to some extent, the man is the god. Then he cried out that Believe in Yourself. His opinion reflected the advancing spirit of capitalism society. This positive spirit was called as America
18、n religion and it pushed the development of national spirit of America. He was the clairvoyant of American spirit and belonged to America, Emersons thoughts and works largely promoted the establishment and development of American national spirit.B. Self-RelianceEmersons works deeply attract readers,
19、 especially Self-Reliance, which is from Essays. This prose is finished according to a series of speech materials between 1836 and 1837. Self-Reliance is his significant work which expresses his idea of transcendentalism. “Believe in Yourself” is the core point of Self-Reliance. Emerson opposed all
20、forms of imitation in the works. He thought the man should believe he was excellent at any time. The real man should learn how to reject to drift with the stream. If a man is afraid of public opinion or compelled him to do something unchanged, he will possibly lose the innovative ability which leads
21、 him to success. If a person doesnt want to let him or the society down, he must comply with the principles in his inner heart, yet the people who comply with the authority, tradition or current system means break this principle. The ideas which Emerson expressed in his prose are largely different.
22、They agreed with the American peoples optimistic spirit at that time. Above all, he believed in individualism, independence and self-reliance. His works is not easy to be understood. He reconstructed the common literature images in writing skill and endowed the works with new ideas. Generally, the r
23、eaders have a common view that his ideas are special and unique.Nowadays, there are many books about self-support. The authors express a series of ideas as Emerson did. The difference is that the common books are easier to be understood. The authors use simple sentences in their works so that all re
24、aders can easily know what the authors express. But Emersons Self-reliance is needed to read many times. He mainly expressed four important ideas in this works, including “The Confidence”, “The Independence”, “The Personality”, “Showing No Sympathy to the Poor”. “The confidence” is a core point whic
25、h Emerson stressed in Self-Reliance. All men should trust their own opinions in spite of the different ideas. Emerson thought a man should trust himself firmly. “The Independence” is another subject which Self-Reliance fully elaborates. It expresses that a man should act independently but not always
26、 relies on the other people. Besides, “Showing no Sympathy to the Poor” agrees with the idea of self-support. In the works, Emerson gave the opinion that the poor are lack of advancing ideas. The result of supporting the poor is to do harm to them. At last, to be a self-reliant person, the man shoul
27、d keep his personality. These ideas are important in todays society. This prose exerts much influence on many ordinary people.II. The Analysis on Emersons Thoughts in Self-RelianceSelf-Reliance is not an average work. Its content is difficult for readers to understand. Emerson showed many of his opi
28、nions about life in the work. The most important ideas include “The Confidence”, “The Independence”, “The Personality”, and “Showing no Sympathy to the Poor”. These ideas are practicable and meaningful for the readers lives.A. The Confidence Self-Reliance is one of Emersons important works which exp
29、ress his transcendentalism. “Believe in Oneself” is the core point in it. In the works, Emerson showed his opinions about the confidence. He criticized all forms of imitation and opposed all self-abased people. The confidence is an evident idea which Emerson gave in Self-Reliance. He thought that th
30、e confidence was a very important virtue. The philosophical idea which he expressed in Self-Reliance had its special power. It enlightened many people and catered to the spirit of optimism in America at that time.Emerson believed a man must trust himself and be himself. Many self-abased people cant
31、express themselves bravely and are ashamed of their divine ideas just because the ideas are their own. Emerson believed that the man should concern his own points of view and keep them steadfastly. In his opinion: “A man should learn to detect and watch the gleam of light flashes across his mind fro
32、m within, more than the luster of the firmament of bards and cages. Yet he dismisses without notice his thought, because it is his.”(Emerson, P7, 2005) From this sentence, it can be acquired that Emerson gave support for expressing ones own ideas loudly and bravely in spite of the others existence.
33、Emersons opinions enlighten a man to keep his original saying in the face of mixed voices. As an individual in society, a man shouldnt suspect himself, or the suspicion from the other people will attack him constantly. The person who doesnt believe in himself will never win the others credibility. I
34、n Emersons Self-Reliance, It is a little difficult to understand the meaning. However, “Trust Yourself” is expressed clearly and can be known by readers easily. The author showed the idea that the man should own the spirit of self-confidence and try to be the true himself. For example, Emerson said
35、in Self-reliance: “Let us never bow and apologize more. A great man is coming to eat at my house, I do not wish to please him; I wish that he should wish to please me”. (Emerson, P20, 2005) On Emersons saying, it is known that he supported the man to be himself generously in spite of the other peopl
36、es social status. Once a person comes to the world, he is possible to be the best one. However, many people are generally timid, and they are no longer upright, they are afraid of saying “I think”, but only quote motto. As a matter of fact, Emerson encouraged the people to express “I think”, “I am”
37、bravely and directly. These words clearly prove the spirit of self-trust.There is a popular saying that “if you think you can, you can”. The confidence is the first step to make success. And Emerson showed the valuable idea in his works. It is believed that the readers are more confident after they
38、finished Self-reliance.B. The IndependenceJust as “The Confidence”, “The Independence” is also a significant idea which Emerson showed in the works. “The Independence” is closely related with the spirit of self-reliance. The author mentioned “The Independence” everywhere in the works. Emerson suppor
39、ted the man to be the true himself independently.Each person should act according to what he thinks. According to Emersons original words: “what I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think”(Emerson, P15, 2005)，Emerson thought that the people shouldnt be influenced by the others. Each one is the first who knows himself much. It is known that the only right is to conform to the mans own will,
