Transcript
Becki Reibman Block 1 There are some ideas that are universal, no matter how long ago they were first put into words. When these ideas are expressed using persuasive techniques and strategies, become truly timeless. Emerson’s oration, The American Scholar, exemplifies this. In this essay, essay, Emerson persuades the reader that a student, in order to be a true American Scholar, must combine learning from nature, books, and experience. He uses a tone appropriate to his audience, employs the use of any number of o f persuasive techniques, and divides his main argument into three concise and well-explained sections. Emerson’s Emerson’s first point of argument is the necessity of learning from nature. In this section of his oration, he upholds that in order to “Know thyself,” one must “Study nature.” According to Emerson, it is to nature--to the wind, to the grass, to flowers and trees--that one compares himself, and is thus able to discover attributes about himself. It is this comparison that Emerson uses to effectively persuade his point. Throughout this section, he emphasizes the similarity between the soul and nature; nature’s laws are similar to the actions of a thinker. “Nature is the opposite of the soul,” Emerson says, implying that they mirror each other and one springs from the other. In the second division of the argument, Emerson details the importance of books, or the past. He begins with saying that we must use books to learn from the learnings of the past. However, he asserts that books must be used with precaution. “Books are the best of things, well used; abused, among a mong the worst,” Emerson says. The chiastic approach to this quote places the word ‘worst’ at the end of the sentence, thus emphasizing this word in particular. In this section, Emerson also foreshadows his third point; “Meek
young men grow up in libraries, believing it their duty to accept the views, which Cicero, which Locke, which Bacon, have given, forgetful that Cicero, Locke, and Bacon were only young men in libraries, when they wrote these books,” he says, setting the audience up for the argument that one must pursue experience as well as books and nature. Through the rest of the section, Emerson argues about the “right way of reading,” that one must read but always look forward, and that how dangerous wrong reading is, correct reading is that much more important. The third influence of the mind that Emerson discusses is action. Action, he says, is essential and “Inaction is cowardice.” He g oes on to say that thought comes from action and that all one knows in life is from experience. He argues that, “Drudgery, calamity, exasperation, want, are instructors in eloquence and wisdom,” meaning that to fully understand something and be wise about it, one must experience it. Additionally, Emerson uses an effective metaphor in the section, comparing the formulation of thought from actions and events to the metamorphosis of a caterpillar to a butterfly. He again uses metaphor stating that, “Life is our dictionary.” Another technique Emerson uses in this section is parallel structure, or anaphora, when he says, “That great principle of Undulation in nature, that shows itself in the inspiring and expiring of breath; in desire and satiety; in the ebb and flow of the sea; in day and night; in heat and cold.” This repetition of structure emphasizes the opposites of each example, further explaining the idea of undulation in nature, which he uses to expand upon the similarity of nature and the soul originally mentioned in the first point of his argument. In summarizing these three influences on the mind, Emerson discusses the duties of a scholar to combine them. He stresses the importance of learning from these
influences, but also trusting oneself and not being afraid to be a non-conformist. Using literary devices, examples that pertain to his audience, and an overall effective use of language, Emerson combines many universal ide as to create the uniform and timeless idea of the American scholar.
