EMERSON’S SELF-RELIANCE

EMERSON’S SELF-RELIANCE

INTRODUCTION

    Ralph Waldo Emerson was born in Boston in 1803. He started his career as a Pastor but soon resigned the job, because his conscience did not permit him to associate himself with religious rituals. His first book Nature was published in 1836. It brings out Emerson’s fundamental concepts of transcendentalism. His The American Scholar and The Divine School Address made him famous all over the country. He published his first series of Essays in 1841. Self-Reliance, The Over Soul, Spiritual Laws and other essays form part of this series. In his preface to the essay Self-Reliance, Emerson quotes a few lines of poetry from Beaumont and Fletcher

DO NOT SEEK OUTSIDE YOURSELF

Imitation is Suicide

     Emerson begins the essay with his reaction to the verses of the painter Allston. The painter has written the verses from the depth of his heart. It appeals to the soul of the hearer. Emerson points out that, the sentiment is more important than thought and that what is true for one man must be true for all. One’s deepest conviction becomes the Universal sense. Great men like Moses, Plato and Milton gave importance only to the ideas that flashed within their own minds. They brushed aside books and traditions. According to Emerson imitation is a kind of suicide. Like farming, every man must cultivate his mind for his nourishment. He need not care for others’ minds.

Trust Thyself

     Emerson says that every person is blessed with divine power. But very few try to bring out this divine power with seriousness. To realize the power we must accept the place provide to us by the divine hand and must bring out the best in us with boldness. Great men always trust themselves and conquer chaos and the dark. Emerson compares the independent critic to an audience in the pit during Shakespeare’s days, because the audience in the pit was independent and free in their criticism of the plays. Emerson points out that at present society is like a joint-stock company with the share-holders surrendering their liberty. Emerson opposes such a lifestyle and upholds self-reliance.

A man should be a non-conformist

     To exist as a ‘man’, a man should be a non-conformist. Emerson asserts that self-reliance necessarily involves disagreement with the society and its customs and traditions. He questions the establishment of numerous Relief Societies for the poor, who sometimes, happen to be drunkards. He asks whether the so-called poor people are really poor. Emerson would speak out the rude truth always. A warm abolitionist once came to him with news of the latest development in Barbadoes. Emerson did not like showing sympathy to people living in far-off places. So he advised the man to go and love the people in his home and the wood-chopper in the neighbourhood. Emerson wants to speak the rude truth.  Emerson wants to be simple, sincere, sound and sweet life. He does not like to adopt virtues for exhibition. Virtues should not be practiced as symbols of one’s courageous or charitable disposition. According Emerson, what is favourable to a man’s constitution is right and what is unfavourable to it is wrong. However, he says that this rule is difficult to follow in actual and in intellectual life. But this rule is sufficient to distinguish between greatness and meanness.

Conformity

     Conforming to dead practices weakens a man. Attachment to any sect in the Church or association with any political party blinds a man of his own innate nature and power and makes him false in all particulars. It makes a man lose his entity and binds him with the chains of identity. He becomes a prisoner to a particular speech. Emerson compares conforming to dead values to the game of blind-man’s-buff. All the professionals are following a dead routine. We smile and pretend to be interested in conversation that does not interest us at all. Neither our sourness nor sweetness is real. It is a mask put on and off according to the dictates of newspapers. These cultivated classes are timid. They are not capable of strong feelings. Their  rage is feminine.

 If he becomes a non-conformist the society punishes him therefore, a non-conformist must know how to conduct himself in society. He can overlook the rage of the cultivated classes. But he should exhibit the habit of magnanimity and religion to defuse the anger of the ignorant multitude.

AN OUTLINE STORY OF THE BOOK OF JOB

AN OUTLINE STORY OF THE BOOK OF JOB

    The Bible was written by an unknown author. It was originally written in Hebrew language. It has two major sections – The Old Testament and The New Testament. The Book of Job is one of the poetic books of the Old Testament of the Bible. Critics divide The Book of Job into five sections i) the prologue written in prose  ii) the debate or the dialogue between Job and his friends  iii) the speeches of Elizhu  iv) The Lord’s answer to Job and   v) the Epilogue

     Job is a wealthy man who lives in the land of Uz. He is blameless and upright. He is a man of integrity and piety. He has a happy family. He has seven sons and three daughters. He owns extensive flocks.

     In the council of Heaven, Satan appears before God and argues that Job is only good because God has blessed him abundantly. Satan challenges God that, if given permission to punish the man, Job will turn and curse God. God allows Satan to torment Job, but he forbids Satan to take Job’s life in the process. In one day, Job lost all his possessions and children. Job tears his clothes and shaves his head in mourning. But his faith in God remains unshaken. He consoles himself saying it is the Lord who gave him and He who had taken away. Again  in the heavenly council, god grants Satan another chance to test Job. This time, Job is afflicted with horrible skin sores. But Job still blesses God in his prayers.

     Three of Job’s friends, Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar come to condole with him. In the three cycles of speeches the friends accuse him  of concealing his sin and ask him to repent. Job denies his guilt. He wants God to reveal to him the cause of his afflictions.

     Without provocation another friend Elihu intervens to show that Job is wrong in expressing his charges against God. He thinks that Job’s excessive talking is an act of rebellion against God.

     God finally speaks to Job out of the storm. He presents before him the splendid pictures of His creation and made his glory pass before Job. Job acknowledges God’s unlimited powers and admits the limitations of his human knowledge.

     In the epilogue God returns Job’s health, providing him with twice as much property as before, new children and an extremely long life.

Summary of DANIEL DEFOE'S ROBINSON CRUSOE

ROBINSON CRUSOE

DANIEL DEFOE

      Daniel Defoe’s novel Robinson Crusoe tells the story of a man cast away on an uninhabited island who attempts to create a life for himself.

     Robinson Crusoe narrates the story to us. He was born in 1632 in the town of York, England.  He is the youngest son of a merchant. His father encourages him to study law, but Crusoe expresses his wish to go to sea. His father advises him to be content with what he has. But Crusoe turns a deaf ear to his father’s plea. On 1^st September 1652, without informing his family members, he boards a ship bound for London with a friend.

     Misfortune begins immediately in the form of rough weather. The ship is forced to land at Yarmouth. From there, Crusoe makes his way to London via land. He thinks briefly about going home, but cannot stand to be humiliated. So he goes to London and befriends an English sea-captain there. The captain takes Crusoe to Guinea Coast in West Africa for trading. He earns a sizeable amount of money by selling the goods. The trip is financially successful. The second voyage does not prove as fortunate because the ship is seized by pirates from Sallee. He remains as slave for two years. While on a fishing expedition, he and a black boy named Xury escape in a boat. A Portuguese Captain picks them up. He buys Xury and takes Crusoe to Brazil. In Brazil, Crusoe establishes himself as a plantation owner and soon becomes successful. To buy more slaves Crusoe sets out on a slave-gathering expedition to West Africa but ends up ship wrecked off of the coast of Trinidad.

     Crusoe, the sole survivor of the expedition reaches an uninhabited island on 30^th September 1659. He takes things like knife, guns, gun power and other items from the wrecked ship. He starts to build himself a shelter in the island.  He learnt to cultivate crops. In June 1660, he falls ill. He prays to God and recovers.

    One day Crusoe notices a man’s footprint on the sea-shore. Soon afterwards, he encounters a group of cannibals feasting on human flesh. Crusoe protects one of the victim whom the cannibal wanted to kill and eat. Crusoe names him Friday and teaches him some English words and elementary Christian concepts.

     Later, Crusoe and Friday fight against another group of cannibals and save from them a Spanish prisoner and Friday’s father. Eight days later, the sight of an  approaching English ship alarms Crusoe and Friday. They watch eleven men and three captives on shore in a boat. Crusoe and Friday overpower these men and release the captives, one of whom is the Captain of the ship. With the help of Crusoe the Captain recovers his ship.

     On December 1686, Crusoe and Friday board the ship to return to England. Through the Portuguese Captain he comes to know the condition of his plantation in Brazil. He arranges to sell his Brazilian lands and made a considerable fortune. He gives money to the people who were so kind to him. He returns to the English countryside and settles there.

THE BEST LAID PLANS - Farrel Mitchell

THE BEST LAID PLANS

Farrel Mitchell

Farrel Mitchell is the author the one-act play “The Best Laid Plans”. It is about the plan of thieves who decide to burgle a diamond shop. But the thieves were outwitted. The play ends with a surprising turn at the end.

Jack and Bill are burglars. They are assisted by a man called Cuthbert who disguised as a policeman. Wood and Spender are the two masters of a jewellery shop. Primrose is a butler.

     Wood and Spender get ready to leave the shop after making necessary arrangements for the safety of their valuables. For safety they hid the key safe under the carpet by the fire place. They are sure that even a burglar would not think of looking for the key under the carpet. As soon as the two masters are gone, the two burglars Jack and Bill step in without making noise. They have already befriended the butler Primrose and got all the necessary information from him. As Primrose is likely to concentrate all his attention on the radio play, the burglars are not noticed by him. So they take the key easily from under the carpet. They want to take the precious diamond jewels kept in the safe. Jack is wiser than Bill, so that he gives instructions to Bill often. Jack has minutely calculated the working hours of the police on the beat. He also knows when he and his friend Bill can make good their escape. Sergeant Will comes down the street on his usual beat at ten minutes past nine. The next police constable Travers comes down the street only at ten o’clock. This interval time is the safest time for Jack and Bill to escape. Jack proposes to write his autobiography to mention all his experiences and valuable ideas to thieves.

     Unexpected arrival of Wood and Spender to the shop interrupts the plan of Jack. The master catch them red handed. The masters decide to the call the police. Before that Jack requests Wood twice to look out of the window to find out if it is raining, because Jack’s fortune-teller said to that he would be caught only on a rainy day. Wood reports that it is not raining. The opening of the window and the drawing out of the window curtains twice is a signal to Cuthbert, a companion of the burglars. Cuthbert come to their rescue in the guise of a policeman. But Wood notices the boots of the policeman and understands the clever move of the burglars. So he ring up detectives from Scotland Yard. The detectives arrest all the three burglars. The burglars are arrested only because of the butler Primrose, who informed about the plans of the three to Wood and Spender. Thus the best laid plan of the burglars shattered into pieces by the butler.