Individualism and how it is evident in Ralph Waldo Emerson's story "Self Reliance".

In society today it is very hard to be your own individual self. We see people as either individualists or conformists. If you're not with the "in" crowd then you are considered to be "weird" or "un-cool". Ralph Waldo Emerson's essay "Self-Reliance" had several themes that focused on the topic of individualism. Emerson said that "imitation is suicide," (Emerson p.867) He explains that if you are not true in the sense of individualism, then you …

…people may actually be suppressing some of their innovative thoughts and ideas just because they don't want to sound stupid in front of their friends, but they wouldn't be stupid, they would just be doing something different from everyone else. Emerson was a non-conformist who wrote about what he believed and he didn't care what anyone else thought about it. I think that we should learn something from Emerson, be a leader not a follower.