Self-Reliance Response

Emerson believes in "A prior I" which means that people in society all have knoledge within us, before we learn somthing. Emerson believes that in society we experiance things and we gain knowledge but we also start with knowledge that we develop over the years. Emerson says that as babys we start off as a blank person who can develop things in your own way, we are infants starting out on a blank slate. When we are born we have the cahnce to be or do whatever we want in society before conformity comes in. Once we are not babys anymore we conform into society, and the controversys come alive. A person in society should be their own person and non comform as an infant. If we non-comform to start we grow up and become our own person, and follow any path we think is the right way to go. Emerson says, "The voyage of the best ship is a zigzag line of a hundred tacks. See the line from a sufficent distance, and it striaghtens itself to the average tendency"(Emerson pg25). This means that the best choice may not always be the most obvious one. And we are going to make mistakes before things work out well. Emerson means that flaws dont change who you are as a person. Flaws make a person and make society who it is, and what it should be. As a perosn grows up they make mistakes, but these mistakes make who they are today.

Thomas Paine- The American Crisis Response

One of the themes that have been coming up alot is the colonies being free from Great Britain. In this excerpt we see more reasons on why that should be done. There was a lot said about God like, "Even the expression is impious, for so unlimited a power can only belong to God". This shows that it didnt matter to them who was in charge, because overall the only person who has real power over them is God. Great britain can act like they have power over them, and for a while it might seem like they have power over the colonies, but when they get the courage and ablitly to get away from great britain they will. He talks about how God will never give up on people who believe in him. He says, "but my secret opnion has ever been, and still is, that God almighty will not give up a people to military destruction". this shows that he has a strong belief in God and his ablity to save him and his people. He believes that as long as he believes in God he will be safe sooner or later and on to a better life. That is somthing that i agree with and disagree with at the same time. I agree with it because I agree with believing in God that god is always there to help you, but I also think somthings are in your own hands, and in order to have God help you, you need to work hard to try and accomplish somthing. He talks about man who acts well in hard times, and that is somthing important to in order to be succesful in lifes and in your lifes goals. To be able to "smile in trouble", or "gather strength from distress" is so important and he definietly stresses taht in this excerpt.