Imagine the wonderful aroma of roses, birds chirping in lilac trees, romantic sweet sayings. This was known as the Romantic time period. Ralph Waldo Emerson's essay "Self Reliance," is an American Romantic because it explores the philosophies of transcendentalism, and individualism. Transcendentalism is the belief that there is a higher reality, or truth that a man can grasp through his intuition, not with logic or science. The celebration of individualism is to look to yourself for your own truth and happiness, and not look to society, or your neighbor. These issues are still relevant today even though this essay was written in the late 1800's. Transcendentalism is the key principle to Emerson's writing, and to this essay.
Emerson's essay "Self Reliance" in his own personal thoughts and feelings about how individuals should stand up for themselves and promote individualism. He argues in this essay that we need to be original and not follow society. He wants us to focus on looking inside ourselves and not to others. Emerson also wants to get across that he wants us to search inside and find what makes us happy and truthful. Emerson believed that everyone should follow their own happiness and what they like which was very much so a Transcendentalist statement. When Emerson said, "imitation is suicide" he means not literally you will die but inside you will not really be yourself or original because you will be like the rest of society. He does not want uniformity, he wants originality.
Individualism is a characteristic of Romanticism. It connects to Emerson's essay as it is what the entire essay is about. Individualism is what Emerson wanted to get across to the readers and that romanticism was the time period for that. Not only is individualism in this essay , but transcendentalism is also in this essay. Transcendentalism is what Emerson was along with other literature writers in this time period.