Ralph Waldo Emerson's "Self-Reliance" Response

Emerson believes that a person's place in society is defined by their accomplishments in which they achieved themselves. These accomplishments can be achieved by believing in Transcendentalism. I believe that Emerson defines Transcendentalism in the following passage: "When good is near you, when you have life in yourself, it is not by any known or accustomed way; you shall not discern the foot-prints of any other; you shall not see the face of man... the thought, the good, shall be wholly strange and new..." In other words, to become truly accomplished, one shall not base their life off the ideals of others, but one should mold their own identity from something entirely new and original. Emerson states "Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, ... and Jesus, ...and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood." These individuals named were Transcendentalists. They believed against the comformity in which everyone else followed. Instead, they expressed their own interpretations and beliefs about the values that they truly cared about. It's ironic how these people were originally Transcendentalists who were truly hated by the comformists, and now the comformity today is completely based around these people. It's as if there is a cycle between Trascendentalism and Comformity. A person is defined in society by their personal accomplishments in which they used transcendentalism to achieve. A society is a mixture between people who follow comformity, and people who follow transcendentalism. The definition of an individual within a society is based off their decision to become either an independent, or a comformist.