Emerson or Hawthorne?
Abstract
This paper focuses on Ralph Waldo Emerson's influence on prominent American writers. Specifically, the paper examines themes that Emerson emphasizes in Self-Reliance and Nature and how those themes are central to selected works by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Walt Whitman, Henry David Thoreau, and Herman Melville. Motifs include, but are not limited to, identity, independence, individuality, introspection, isolation, and ingenuity.
This paper has been withdrawn.