Ralph Emerson

     Emerson started out in the very beginning by saying, "to believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men-that is genius." Meaning you have to do what you believe in and not other people and that is how all men should be. He continues to say things that show you he believes in what he thinks and of someone else does not agree, he will do it anyways and i believe that is what he is trying to get all the other people to believe in. Then he says, "Infancy conforms to nobody: all conform to it, so that one baby commonly makes four or five out of the adults who prattle and play to it." Here he is saying that when we were all babies we were how we were and we didn't try and get people to like us or go against what we thought." The adults came to us! So like in our last reading Hawthorne, how the towns people were basically a mob, it feels that in this story is it also like that because almost everyone follows everyone else and does not do what their heart tells them to do. In this society, like today, people judge people on what they see and when they see is usually not perfect so then they usually critsize what they don't like.
     "Self-reliance is its aversion. It loves not realities and creators, but names and customs." I compaired this to todays world, people will go out and buy expensive things just because of the name that is on it when in reality, is that necessary?
     He keeps saying things along the line of what he is doing might be wrong to most but it is not wrong to him. He will do what he knows is right and I get this from, "I ought to go upright and vital, and speak the rude truth in all ways" and also "I much prefer that it should be of a lower strain, so it be genuine and equal, than it be glittering and unsteady." He just seems like a very down to earth man.
     I do not quite understand what he means by, "A man must consider what a blindman's buff is this game os conformity."
     "The foolish face of praise," the forced smile which me put on in company where we do not feel at ease in answer to conversation which does not interest us." I completely agree with this, everyone does this today. We could be walking down  the street and someone might smile at us even though we do not know each other. Then we will give them a half smile because we feel bad and uncomfortable.    
     Everything that he says in here is true, from people following people because they are scared to be themselves and what might happen if they do what they want. To not wanting to feel the disappointment of others if you do something wrong. I think people need to stand up to what they believe and stop doing what other people are telling them.