The American Scholar Summary

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The American Scholar Summary There are some ideas that are universal, no matter how long ago they were first put into words. When these ideas are expressed using persuasive techniques and strategies, become truly timeless. Emerson’s oration, The American Scholar, exemplifies this. In this essay, Emerson persuades the reader that a student, in order to be a true American Scholar, must combine learning from nature, books, and experience. He uses atone appropriate to his audience, employs the use of any number of persuasive techniques, and divides his main argument into three concise and well-explained sections. Emerson’s first point of argument is the necessity of learning from nature. In this section of his oration, he upholds that in order to “Know thyself,” one must “Study nature.” According to Emerson, it is to nature--to the wind, to the grass, to flowers and trees--that one compares himself, and is thus able to discover attributes about himself. It is this comparison that Emerson uses to effectively persuade his point. Throughout this section, he emphasizes the similarity between the soul and nature; nature’s laws are similar to the actions of a thinker. “Nature is the opposite of the soul,” Emerson says, implying that they mirror each other and one springs from the other. In the second division of the argument, Emerson details the importance of books, or the past. He begins with saying that we must use books to learn from the learnings of the past. However, he asserts that books must be used with precaution. “Books are the best of things, well used; abused, among the worst,” Emerson says. The chiastic approach to this quote places the word ‘worst’ at the end of the sentence, thus emphasizing this word in particular. In this section, Emerson also foreshadows his third point; “Meek young men grow up in libraries, believing it their duty to accept the views,
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