22 pages • 44 minutes read
Ralph Waldo EmersonThe American Scholar
Nonfiction | Essay / Speech | Adult | Published in 1837A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Key FiguresCharacter Analysis
The Ideal American Scholar
In this lecture, Emerson outlines his ideal American scholar. This is a figure who is engaged in the natural and the physical world, not merely in the world of books. As Emerson states in the section of his lecture that is devoted to the importance of action in an intellectual’s life: “I learn immediately from any speaker how much he has already lived, through the poverty or the splendor of his speech” (Paragraph 25). By “lived,” Emerson is referring to life that takes place in the immediate world; the fuller and more populated this life is, he believes, the more it informs the intellect.
The ideal American scholar, for Emerson, is not overly intimidated by the past. While conversant in classic old works and writers, he does not assume his inferiority to these writers or assume that the world has already been shaped by their thought. Rather, he assumes his own potential ability to shape the world. Although engaged in the life of the world, he is also not swayed by customs and institutions. Emerson believes that the power of the individual is stronger than that of society, and his ideal scholar is anchored in his individualism rather than a part of “the mass” (Paragraph 34).
Emerson’s ideal scholar is a student of the natural world, but also sees himself as a part of this world; his studiousness is not merely that of a detached scientist. Although familiar with intricate systems of classification, he also sees the natural world as a reflection of himself, and vice versa: “He shall see that nature is the opposite of the soul, answering to it part for part. One is seal and one is print” (Paragraph 9). This belief in the unity of man and nature is one tenet of transcendentalism, a philosophy which Emerson helped to found.
The Compromised American Scholar
Against his ideal scholar, Emerson sets forth what he sees as the flawed and compromised scholar of his time. Emerson sees this flawed scholar as an unfortunate product of the modern age, with its tendency towards over-specialization and herd thinking. The flawed scholar devotes himself purely to scholarship—his designated field—as other professionals do to their own fields. In his narrowness of focus, he is therefore not a “full” (Paragraph 34) man, any more than are these other focused professionals:
Man is not a farmer, or a professor, or an engineer, but he is all […] In the divided or social state these functions are parceled out to individuals […] The state of society is one in which the members have suffered amputation from the trunk, and strut about so many walking monsters,—a good finger, a neck, a stomach, an elbow, but never a man (Paragraph 4).
Emerson’s flawed scholar is characterized by fearfulness and passivity—he is “cowed” (Paragraph 33). He is the inverse of Emerson’s ideal scholar in his relation to the world; he is swayed by social pressures and customs, while also holding himself apart from the world and not seeing himself as a real actor in it. He performs his role—that of “Man Thinking” (Paragraph 6)—without any real thoughtfulness, but rather automatically, as if the role has been set out for him a long time ago. He is overly focused on the past, and on the works of past illustrious writers, rather than seeing himself—as Emerson’s ideal scholar does—as a shaper of the future.
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