浅析爱默生的《论自助》—人生自主的源泉

Abstract
Emerson, 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 explores 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 today’s society, including the enlightenments on the confident and optimistic attitudes towards life, the promotion of female’s self-reliance, the influence on individuals’ success and a country’s prosperity.
Key Words
Self-reliance; Emerson; enlightenment 本文来自
Emerson collected all his speech materials and made a book called Essays, including Self-reliance, Love, and Friendship and so on. Emerson’s Essays speaks highly of the man who should trust their own suggestion. He advocated that a man should develop the national pride and opposed following the others’ saying. Almost all his speeches made a deep influence on America’s 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 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 American religion and it pushed the development of national spirit of America. He was the clairvoyant of American spirit and belonged to America, Emerson’s thoughts and works largely promoted the establishment and development of American national spirit.
B. Self-Reliance
 Emerson’s works deeply attract readers, 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 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 him to success. If a person doesn’t 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. They agreed with the American people’s 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 readers have a common view that his ideas are special and unique.