Self-Reliance

The essay is also one of the most important works in the Transcendentalist movement. Transcendentalism was an American literary and philosophical movement in the late 1830s and the 1840s. Transcendentalists emphasized nature, nonconformity, interconnectedness, and intuition—all themes that are present in “Self-Reliance.” “Self-Reliance” teaches readers to live a Transcendentalist lifestyle. 

The Transcendentalist movement descended from the European Romantic movement, which was a response to the Enlightenment’s emphasis on reason above all else. Like Romanticism, Transcendentalism valued nature and human emotion over reason. In “Self-Reliance,” Emerson argues that humans should listen to the natural world and their own instinct rather than society or the past. This Romantic emphasis on intuition is clearly seen in such quotes as "Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string," as Emerson argues for self-reliance by appealing to the enduring reliability of the human heart rather than to societal norms. Trust in individual intuition as the source of truth was a foundational Transcendentalist tenet. As a key Transcendentalist text, then, “Self-Reliance” is a work of both literature and philosophy.