Journal 21 Emerson in Comparison to Franklin

Emerson thought that self reliance was extremely important to the success of a person. He thought that people needed to be separate from the common world because there was way too much conformity in the world and there was a lack of individuality. Franklin seemed to have a similar opinion about how people need to act. His thoughts were actually more focuses on how a person interacts in nature, while Emerson remained focused on society relation to people. Franklin thoughts about individuality are all about how a person feels about themselves. This is actually what created the basis for the thoughts about self reliance that Emerson later wrote about. Emerson is truly one of the first Transcendentalists and his work "Self Reliance" is the first work of its kind. Franklin did not really care much about how people ended up being in relation to the rest of the people of the world. Emerson really thought that there was a flaw in the world in that too many people were conforming to be the same way that everyone else. Really, Franklin's thoughts from his Romantic views are the basis for the thoughts of Transcendentalism which is the main creation of Ralph Waldo Emerson. The ideas are extremely the same, but the major change is in how it relates to the world. To Franklin, self reliance and individuality was all about how it effected the person that was practicing it; though to Emerson, the self reliance and individuality was all about how one shapes their personality in the world. I find it odd that Emerson rejected Romanticism in his later years of writing because it seems that Romanticism is actually one of his biggest influences for the work that made him famous. Though there are differences in the writing, the basis is quite similar and many relationships can be seen. Overall, Emerson and Franklin have very similar writing styles and because of this, Emerson actually created the literary era of Transcendentalism himself.