美国文学选读 论自助分析
美国文学选读 The Great Gatsby 分析
F. Scott Fitzgerald (1890 - 1940)II. His masterpiece: The Great Gatsby1.The story summary:The entire story takes place in one summer in 1922.The novel describes the life and death of Jay Gatsby, as seen through the eyes of a narrator who does not share the same point of view as the fashionable people around him.The narrator learns that Gatsby became rich by breaking the law. Gatsby pretends to be a well-educated war hero, which he is not, yet the narrator portrays（描绘）him as being far more noble than the rich, cruel, stupid people among whom he and Gatsby live.Gatsby’s character is purified by a deep, unselfish love for Daisy, a beautiful, silly woman who, earlier, married a rich husband instead of Gatsby and moved into high society.Gatsby has never lost his love for her and, in an era when divorce has become easy, he tries to win her back by becoming rich himself. He does not succeed, and in the end he is killed by accident because of his determination to shield Daisy from disgrace.None of Gatsby’s upper class friends come to his funeral. The narrator is so disgusted that he leaves New York and returns to his original home.Chapter NineNick makes plans for the funeral.Gatsby's Funeral, three people show up.Nick returns to the west.Nick meets with Tom BuchananNick gets a last view of Gatsby's house.小说表面上是一个爱情故事，但实际却是对社会现状的讽刺批判。
美国文学选读及赏析名词解释
American Transcendentalism （时间，主要主张和特征，代表人物，代表作）定义Transcendentalism was a religious and philosophical movement that developed during the late 1820s and '30s[1] in the Eastern region of the United States as a protest against the general state of spirituality and, in particular, the state of intellectualism at Harvard University and the doctrine of the Unitarian church as taught at Harvard Divinity School.美国超验主义：它宣称存在一种理想的精神实体，超越于经验和科学之处，通过直觉得以把握。
时间：1830s-Civil War主要主张：（我觉得主张就是特征就写一起了）The Transcendental ists “placed emphasis on spirit, or the Over-soul, as the most important thing in the universe”（1）The importance of intuition.（直觉）The Transcendentalists believed that individuals can intuitively receive higher truths otherwise unavailable through common methods of knowing.(2) The importance of the individual.(3) The importance of the nature.代表人物：Ralph Waldo Emerson 爱默生代表作Nature (《论自然》)“The American Scholar”（《论美国学者》）”Our Intellectual Declaration of Independence““Divinity School Address”(《神学院毕业班演说》)Essays（《论文集》）Essays: Second Series“Representative Men" (《人类代表》)Henry David Thoreau (梭罗)Walden (1854) (《瓦尔登湖》)Nathaniel Hawthorne (霍桑)Twice –Told Tales《尽人皆知的故事》Mosses from an Old Manse《古屋青苔》The Scarlet Letter （《红字》）The House of the Seven Gables （《带有七个尖角阁的房子》）The Blithedale Romance （《福谷传奇》）The Marble Faun （《玉石雕像》）“Young Goodman Brown”(《好小伙布朗》)Henry Wadsworth Longfellow亨利.华兹沃斯.朗费罗Voices of the Night (1839) 《夜籁集》-- catch the attentionBallads and Other Poems (1841) 《歌谣及其它》Evangeline (1847) 《伊凡吉林》Hiawatha or The Song of Hiawatha (1855)《海华莎之歌》Imagism （时间，对Image 的定义，主要主张和特征，代表人物，代表作）定义Imagism was poetic movement of England and the united states, flourishing from 1909-1917. Its credo, expressed in some imagist poets, includes the use of precise language, the creation of new rhythms, absolute freedom in choice of subject matter, and the evocation of concrete images.时间：between the years 1909 and 1917特征：(1) “Direct treatment of the 'thing' whet h er subjective or objective;”(2) “To use absolutely no word that does not contribute to the presentation;”(3) “As regarding rhythm: to compose in the sequence of musical phrase, not in sequence of a metronome(节拍器).”主张：It came into being as a reaction to the traditional English poetry characterized by cloudy verbiage, and aimed instead at a new clarity and exactness in the short lyric poem.代表人物：Ezra Pound“The Cantos”。
美国文学选读-论自助分析
S e l f-R e l i a n c e By Ralph Waldo Emerson (1817-1862)通常认为，美德完全是意外之举，而非规则。
人跟他的品德是两码事。
人做的那些所谓的善举，如见义勇为、扶危济困之类，就跟他们必须为不参加日常的游行而缴纳罚金作为抵偿一样。
他们干这种事只算是他们在这个世界上生活的一种赔罪或掩饰——好比病人和精神病患者交的巨额的伙食费一样。
他们的美德就是苦修赎罪。
我不想赎罪，我只想生活。
我只为生活而生活，并非为了观赏。
我更希望它能低调一些，好能真实而平等，而不愿意它光彩照人，动荡不安。
我希望它健康甜美，不必去忍受饥饿和病痛。
我要的是“你是个人”这样主要的证据，而不是脱离了人只论及他的行动。
我知道，对于那些所谓的高明行动，无论我是做了还是避免，于我本身来说其实无关紧要。
我拒绝在我已经拥有权力的地方再购买特权。
我虽然无德无能，却是一个真实的存在，因此没必要为了让我自己或我的同伴安心而要求别人给予保证。
（类比、比喻：analogy ）人们所想的事与我无关，我必须做的只是与我有关的事。
这一规定，在现实生活和精神生活中同样至关重要，所以伟大和渺小完全可以据此来区分。
因为你总会发现一些这样的人，他们觉得他们比你还清楚你自己的职责是什么，因此，这一规定显得更加严厉了。
在世界上，以世人的观点生活很容易；在隐居时，以自己的想法生活也不难；可是伟人之所以是伟人，就在于他能在无数俗人之中完美的保持了特立独行的个性。
（排比：parallel construction）因为不顺从，世人就对你处处不满，大加鞭笞。
因此一个人必须学会判断别人的脸色。
无论在街上还是朋友的客厅里，他都会遭人白眼。
假如这种反感像他自己一样也来自鄙视和抵触，他不如耷拉着脸回家算了。
但是人民生气的脸孔跟他们欢喜的脸孔一样，并没有什么深层的原因，而只是随着社会舆论的导向而被操纵着转换。
不过比起议院和学校的不满，群情激愤要可怕多了。
陶洁《美国文学选读》（第3版）笔记和课后习题详解（第13单元凯萨琳
陶洁《美国⽂学选读》（第3版）笔记和课后习题详解（第13单元凯萨琳第13单元凯萨琳?安?波特13.1复习笔记I.Introduction to author（作者简介）1.Life（⽣平）Katherine Anne Porter(1890-1980)was born in Indian Greek,Texas.She began her life as a news reporter and sometimes as an actress and ballad /doc/0a7395332.htmlter she stayed in Europe and Mexico which proved very valuable for her writing.She was basically a short-story writer.Her Collected Stories won her both a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award.She lectured at various universities and received honorary doctorates from various institutions.She was vice president of the National Institute of Arts and Lettersfrom1950to1952.凯萨琳·安·波特(1890—1980)出⽣于德克萨斯州印第安河市。
她曾做过报社记者，演员和民谣歌⼿。
后来她到过欧洲和墨西哥。
这段经历对她⽇后的写作很有帮助。
她主要是短篇⼩说家。
她的《短篇⼩说集》获得了普利策奖和全国图书奖。
她曾到许多⼤学做讲座，收到了许多机构授予的荣誉博⼠学位。
从1950年到1952年她担任美国国家艺术与⽂学协会副主席。
2.Major Works（主要作品）The Flowering Judas(1930)《开花的紫荆树》Pale Horse,Pale Rider(1939)《灰⾊骑⼠灰⾊马》Old Mortality(1939)《修墓⽼⼈》The Leaning Tower(1944)《斜塔》The Old Order(1944)《旧秩序》A Ship of Fools(1962)《愚⼈船》II.Selected works（选读作品）◆The Jilting of Granny Weatherall《被背弃的⽼祖母》The Granny in this story is a very strong and hardy woman.At first,her lover abandoned her,and then her husband died at an early age,but she was confronted with frustrations bravely and took care of farm all by herself and successfully brought up her children.However,the Granny also has weaknesses.She has always been trying to forget about the shame and anguish brought about by her lover’s abandon,but unfortunately,she couldn’t dismiss them form her mind until she died.On her deathbed,she was hurt again;because that God did not come to her to take her to the heaven as her religious belief meant,but her life was took away by Death before she was ready to die.故事中的⽼祖母是⼀位坚强的⼥性。
浅析爱默生的论自助
浅析爱默生的论自助拉尔夫?华尔多?爱默生是美国十九世纪着名的作家,《论自助》是其极具影响力的一部作品,也是一部激励人们自信、独立的作品。
论文从分析、研究爱默生及其作品出发,探索了作品中的四种主要思想,包括“自信”、“独立”、“个性”、“拒绝对穷人的同情”,其中,“自信”是论文的核心。
在研究作品主要思想的基础上,论文探讨了作品的主要思想对当今社会的启迪和影响,包括对乐观自信生活态度的启迪、对女性自助思想的促进、对个人成功的影响及对国家繁荣与富强的影响。
IntroductionEmerson, Ralph Waldo was one of the most outstanding American writers in the19th century; he experienced much in his whole life. His Self-Reliance is an influential work which deeply attracts many readers. “Believe in Oneself” is the main idea exp ressed and analyzed in the work. In Self-Reliance, there exist four kinds of important thoughts. The first kind of thought is “The Confidence”. Emerson advocated that a man must show his opinion confidently and bravely in spite of different ideas. “The Independence” is the second kind of important thought which is expressed in Self-Reliance. A man should keep himself firmly but not be easily influenced by environment. The third kind of thought is to keep personality, which is closely related to the confidence and the independence. From Emerson’s opinion, a man must keep his personality and conform to his own principles. “Showing no Sympathy to the Poor” is the fourth kind of thought in the work. It shows that why the poor are poor is mainly due to their backward thinking.Showing help to this kind of people means doing harm to them. All these ideas in Emerson’s Self-reliance have enlightenments on today’s society. They help people take confident and optimistic attitudes towards life. These important thoughts enlighten the female to be confident and strive for their social status. Besides, they are crucial for individuals’success. Each man who possesses the thoughts is easy to make progress and achieve success. Moreover, a country’s prosperity is established on the basis of confidence and independence.I. A Brief Introduc... .tion to Emerson and His Self-RelianceA. Emerson, Ralph WaldoEmerson collected all his speech materials and made a book called Essays, including Self-reliance, Love, and Friendship and so on. Emerson’s Essays speaks highly of the man who should trust their own suggestion. He advocated that a man should develop the national pride and opposed following the others’saying. Almost all his speeches made a deep influence on America’s national civilization. In 1837, he published a famous speech which declared that the American literature was separated from Britain literature. He was also the spokesman of transcendentalism. Emerson abandoned the thought which takes god as the centre. He raised the idea that the man could know the truth by instinct, so to some extent, the man is the god. Then hecried out that ‘Believe in Yourself’. His opinion reflected the advancing spirit of capitalism society. This positive spirit was called as American religion and it pushed the development of national spirit of America. He was the clairvoyant of American spirit and belonged to America, Emerson’s thoughts and works largely promoted the establishment and development of American national spirit.B. Self-RelianceEmerson’s works deeply attract readers, especially Self-Reliance, which is from Essays. This prose is finished according to a series of speech materials between 1836 and 1837. Self-Reliance is his significa nt work which expresses his idea of transcendentalism. “Believe in Yourself” is the core point of Self-Reliance. Emerson opposed all forms of imitation in the works. He thought the man should believe he was excellent at any time. The real man should learn how to reject to drift with the stream. If a man is afraid of public opinion or compelled him to do something unchanged, he will possibly lose the innovative ability which leads him to success. If a person doesn’t want t... .o let him or the society down, he must comply with the principles in his inner heart, yet the people who comply with the authority, tradition or current system means break this principle. The ideas which Emerson expressed in his prose are largely different. They agreed with the American people’s optimistic spirit at that time. Above all, he believed in individualism, independence andself-reliance. His works is not easy to be understood. He reconstructed the common literature images in writing skill and endowed the works with new ideas. Generally, the readers have a common view that his ideas are special and unique.Nowadays, there are many books about self-support. The authors express a series of ideas as Emerson did. The difference is that the common books are easier to be understood. The authors use simple sentences in their works so that all readers can easily know what the authors express. But Emerson’s Self-reliance is needed to read many times. He mainly expressed four important ideas in this works, including “The Confidence”, “The Independence”, “The Personality”, “Showing No Sympathy to the Poor”. “The confidence” is a core point which Emerson stressed in Self-Reliance. All men should trust their own opinions in spite of the different ideas. Emerson thought a ma n should trust himself firmly. “The Independence” is another subject which Self-Reliance fully elaborates. It expresses that a man should act independently but not always relies on the other people. Besides, “Showing no Sympathy to the Poor” agrees with th e idea of self-support. In the works, Emerson gave the opinion that the poor are lack of advancing ideas. The result of supporting the poor is to do harm to them. At last, to be a self-reliant person, the man should keep his personality. These ideas are important in today’s society. This prose exerts much influence on many ordinary people.II. The Analysis on Emerson’s Thoughts in Self-Reliance... .Self-Reliance is not an average work. Its content is difficult for readers to understand. Emerson showed many of his opinions about life in the work. The most important ideas include “The Confidence”, “The Independence”, “The Personality”, and “Showing no Sympathy to the Poor”. These ideas are practicable and meaningful for the reader’s lives.A. The ConfidenceSelf-Reliance is one of Emerson’s important works which express his transcendentalism. “Believe in Oneself” is the core point in it. In the works, Emerson showed his opinions about the confidence. He criticized all forms of imitation and opposed all self-abased people. The confidence is an evident idea which Emerson gave in Self-Reliance. He thought that the confidence was a very important virtue. The philosophical idea which he expressed in Self-Reliance had its special power. It enlightened many people and catered to the spirit of optimism in America at that time.Emerson believed a man must trust himself and be himself. Many self-abased people can’t express themselves bravely and are ashamed of their divine ideas just because the ideas are their own. Emerson believed that the man should concern his own points of view and keep them steadfastly. In his opinion: “A man should learn to detect and watch the gleam of light flashes across his mind from within, more than the luster of the firmament of bards and cages. Yet hedismisses without notice his thought, because it is his.”(Emerson, P7, 2005) From this sentence, it can be acquired that Emerson gave support for expressing one’s own ideas loudly and bravely in spite of the others’existence. Emerson’s opinions enlighten a man to keep his original saying in the face of mixed voices. A an individual in society, a man shouldn’t suspect himself, or the suspicion from the other people will attack him constantly. The person who doesn’t believe in himself will... .never win the other’s credibility. In Emerson’s Self-Reliance, It is a little difficult to understand the meaning. However, “Trust Yourself” is expressed clearly and can be known by readers easi ly. The author showed the idea that the man should own the spirit of self-confidence and try to be the true himself. For example, Emerson said in Self-reliance: “Let us never bow and apologize more.A great man is coming to eat at my house, I do not wish to please him; I wish that he should wish to please me”. (Emerson, P20, 2005) On Emerson’s saying, it is known that he supported the man to be himself generously in spite of the other people’s social status. Once a person comes to the world, he is possible to be the best one. However, many people are generally timid, and they are no longer upright, they are afraid of saying “I think”, but only quote motto. A matter of fact, Emerson encouraged the people to express “I think”, “I am” bravely and directly. Thes e words clearly prove the spirit of self-trust.There is a popular saying that “if you think you can, you can”. The confidence is the first step to make success. And Emerson showed the valuable idea in his works. It is believed that thereaders are more confident after they finished Self-reliance.B. The IndependenceJust as “The Confidence”, “The Independence” is also a significant idea which Emerson showed in the works. “The Independence” is closely related with the spirit of self-reliance. The author mentioned “The Independence” everywhere in the works. Emerson supported the man to be the true himself independently.Independence is an indispensable quality for one’s success. Emerson pointed out that the man without any independent idea is difficult to conduct himself. Therefore, it is very necessary to form the habit of self-reliance.C. The PersonalityIn Sel... .f-Reliance, Emerson advocated that a man should do everything according to his own will. This thought is closely related with the idea of confidence. A confident man is the one who always keeps his own personality. It is a very important thought which Emerson expressed in the works. It does help the readers to be confident.A a mater of fact, it is the man’s faith, not the environment that influences people’s lives. A successful man is the one who deeply trusts his inner power. He is never influenced by the environment.D. Showing no Sympathy to the PoorIn Self-reliance, Emerson fundamentally showed the idea of confidence and independence. Besides these ideas, he illustrated the idea of “Showing no sympathy to the Poor”. This point of view agrees with the confidence and independence. Emerson indirectly showed the reason why the man is poor and why no sympathy should be showed to the poor.The poor condition is not terrible, but the poor mind is a very serious problem. The man should never help the poor with money, but give them a tool to produce wealth by themselves, or teach them to be independent and challengeable. Emerson’s opinions towards the poor have given the readers a meaningful enlightenment.III.Self-Reliance’s Enlightenment on Today’s SocietySelf-Reliance gives readers much help in coping with their lives. It exerts enlightenment on readers to be confident and independent. It teaches man to take advancing attitudes towards life. Besides, these ideas enlighten female’s life. It is also of great help for individuals’progress anda country’s development.A. Attitudes towards LifeSelf-Reliance profoundly inspires a man to strengthen his self-confidence. A young man said in a forum: “If they are afraid of other’s different suggestion and give... .up their own thinking, then that’s losing themselves. No matter what they do, they should keep definite point of view and independent thinking”.(Smear, P49,2002).He further explained that everyone’s idea is different, no one can make the others’the same with he himself, so just think about the objection but neglect the irrelevant discussion. When the man finishes his aim, all voices have stopped with it. Each man should have his virtue in tacking with all problems.The attitudes towards life have two choices. One is to die and the other is to live. Emerson’s Self-Reliance teaches the readers to follow their own thoughts and take optimistic attitudes towards life. Everything has two sides, the most important is that which side the man chooses. A man should be confident everyday, and then each day is beautiful and without worry. Emerson showed in his works that each man should be independent to cope with his problems, but not always seek for assistance. The man can learn from the other people, but he should make decisions by himself. Each successful man has his own personality so that he is easy to achieve his dreams. Once a person catches the fundamental idea of self-independence and self-confidence, he can tellwhich is right or wrong no matter how complicated the interpersonal relation is. Then he is likely to reject to parrot.B. The Female’s Self-RelianceIt is known that man and woman are born of inequality in human history. No matter how successful the women’s liberation is, this bias will forever occupy people’s minds. With the development of society, some female people with spirits of self-support fiercely object this thought. Women have their own forte in most time while the men don’t have. It is accepted that women’s social status is highly improved. According to the investigation, the female officers or managers are highly increased and account a large proportion among the to... .tal. Besides this, most women accept more advanced education than the male. However, the prejudice originated from the history seems never to disappear from people’s minds. Some women are still suffering from the prejudice in such a developed society. In modern society, the women possess so many social protocols. For instance, there is a popular saying that “Ladies First”, and the national law also safeguards the female’s rights and interests. Someone thinks the meaning implied in this phenomenon is that the society takes women as the weak, for the people who need protection are to some extent weaker than those who can deal with problems by themselves.However, although a small part of girls can’t live on their own, most women are aware of the crisis, and most of them can deal with their lives completely and independently. On Emerson’s views, whether a man or woman is, he/she should depend on themselves except the general assistance from each other. A an important part in human being, women should have their own understanding, their own careers and worlds. Some girls who seek fortune or reliance from men are severely looked down upon by society. Those women seem to lead a perfect life, but their inner hearts are too void. They acknowledge that they are corrupted and forsaken by society. Whereas, they are reluctant to escape from this corrupted living circle once they abandon themselves to it. Moreover, they often search protection, responsibility from men. But most women are advancing in mind. It seems that women take more and more significant roles in a family, even in the society. Most women often support for their families which testifies their high ability.From Emerson’s ideas in Self-Reliance, all women should own the self-reliance of idea, of economy, and of ability. He advocated the women to strive for the social status and make contributions to the society.C. The Influence on... .IndividualsTo be a self-independent person can absolutely change one’s humble life even in the backward society. Generally, the poor people are inclining to be self-reliant for coercion of life. It is well known that the richest man, Li Jiacheng, is the business tycoon in Hong Kong. It is an evident example that the poor man is ambitious and self-improving so that he can become an uncommon person in later time. Another famous person is the head of board of Meng Niu enterprise, Niu Gengsheng. He was sold out for 50 Y uan when he was in infancy not because his parents abandoned him but because they couldn’t raise him. In such kind of living condition, he studied and worked hard to be a successful man. All men are intelligent and brave, but not all men can make success. Some people often complain about destiny. The wise think that success originates from one’s spirit. The genius is only but common people with knowledge and virtue. Helen Keller, the everlasting pride of human being, was deprived of both sight and hearing after the terrible illness in the 19th month after she was born. However, she was not defeated by disastrous life which happened to her in her young age. No one can imagine how a dumb and deaf girl transformed her life thoroughly by her persistent hard work and persevering spirit, yet Helen Keller did it. Her adversity and great achievements stimulates the common people to work hard and to be self-supported. Helen’s remarkable success was partly due to the assistance, Miss Sullivan who accompanied her in the whole life, but largely due to her own persistent and dauntless faith. She learned several languages in her life and created miracles one by one. The very difficulties which cannot be done by common people were broken through by Helen Keller. Her name was set as a symbolization of persistent will. A the tremendous spiritual power, her legendary life deeply encourages the people to conquer the misfortune. Mark Twain said: “... .Helen Keller was the focus of America in 19th century”. These examples prove that independence and self-support can change one’s life thoroughly.The valuable ideas which Emerson showed in Self-Reliance are a great help for individuals’development. These ideas make each one to be confident and independent. Many people’s success is fundamentally due to these two qualities.D. The Influence on CountriesA the strongest country in the world, America has its own individualities. This country only enjoys a history of 200 years. In comparison with the other European countries, it is full of innovation and has its own personality. The technology, weapons, comprehensive strength are always in the first place. The Americas are realistic. Money is vital in their minds so that all Americans are up to their ears for work. Money can be used for fame, social status, even presidency in this country. They are democratic, liberal, outspoken and competitive. Take the American children for example. They can work to support themselves when they are young and also cope with their problems by themselves without any help from parents. All Americans have formed these habits from early time so that their country is the best self-improvement among all countries.Almost every person believes the country should support them with the perfect system sothat they can improve their living conditions, but the ideas in Self-Reliance suggest that the high life and well-being can only be acquired through a man’s own efforts. The people often take a high expectation towards the function of laws. If the laws work well, then they can insure people to enjoy their own achievements and reduce individual sacrifices. However, the best strict law cannot change the sluggish persons to industrious persons or the poor to the rich. These changes can be achieved only through one’s own conducts and activities...。
论自助
Self-RelianceI read the other day some verses written by an eminent painter which were original and not conven tional. The soul always hears an admonition in such lines, let the subject be what it may. The senti ment they instil is of more value than any thought they may contain. To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men, — that is genius. Spea k your latent conviction, and it shall be the universal sense; for the inmost in due time becomes the outmost,—— and our first thought is rendered back to us by the trumpets of the Last Judgment. Familiar as th e voice of the mind is to each, the highest merit we ascribe to Moses, Plato, and Milton is, that the y set at naught books and traditions, and spoke not what men but what they thought. A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light which flashes across his mind from within, more tha n the lustre of the firmament of bards and sages. Yet he dismisses without notice his thought, beca use it is his. In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts: they come back to u s with a certain alienated majesty. Great works of art have no more affecting lesson for us than this . They teach us to abide by our spontaneous impression with good-humored inflexibility then most when the whole cry of voices is on the other side. Else, to-morrow a stranger will say with master ly good sense precisely what we have thought and felt all the time, and we shall be forced to take with shame our own opinion from another.There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toi l bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till. The power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried. Not for nothing one face, one character, one fact, makes much impression on him, and anoth er none. This sculpture in the memory is not without preestablished harmony. The eye was placed where one ray should fall, that it might testify of that particular ray. We but half express ourselves, and are ashamed of that divine idea which each of us represents. It may be safely trusted as propo rtionate and of good issues, so it be faithfully imparted, but God will not have his work made mani fest by cowards. A man is relieved and gay when he has put his heart into his work and done his be st; but what he has said or done otherwise, shall give him no peace. It is adeliverance which does not deliver. In the attempt his genius deserts him; no muse befriends; no in vention, no hope. Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string. Accept the place the divin e providence has found for you, the society of your contemporaries, the connection of events. Grea t men have always done so, and confided themselves childlike to the genius of their age, betraying their perception that the absolutely trustworthy was seated at their heart, working through their ha nds, predominating in all their being. And we are now men, and must accept in the highest mind th e same transcendent destiny; and not minors and invalids in a protected corner, not cowards fleein g before a revolution, but guides, redeemers, and benefactors, obeying the Almighty effort, and ad vancing on Chaos and the Dark. What pretty oracles nature yields us on this text, in the face and behaviour of children, babes, and even brutes! That divided and rebel mind, that distrust of a senti ment because our arithmetic has computed the strength and means opposed to our purpose, these h ave not. Their mind being whole, their eye is as yet unconquered, and when we look in their faces, we are disconcerted. Infancy conforms to nobody: all conform to it, so that one babe commonlymakes four or five out of the adults who prattle and play to it. So God has armed youth and pubert y and manhood no less with its own piquancy and charm, and made it enviable and gracious and it s claims not to be put by, if it will stand by itself. Do not think the youth has no force, because he c annot speak to you and me. Hark! in the next room his voice is sufficiently clear and emphatic. It s eems he knows how to speak to his contemporaries. Bashful or bold, then, he will know how to m ake us seniors very unnecessary.The nonchalance of boys who are sure of a dinner, and would disdain as much as a lord to do or s ay aught to conciliate one, is the healthy attitude of human nature. A boy is in the parlour what the pit is in the playhouse; independent, irresponsible, looking out from his corner on such people and facts as pass by, he tries and sentences them on their merits, in the swift, summary way of boys, as good, bad, interesting, silly, eloquent, troublesome. He cumbers himself never about consequence s, about interests: he gives an independent, genuine verdict. You must court him: he does not court you. But the man is, as it were, clapped into jail by his consciousness. As soon as he has once acte d or spoken with eclat, he is a committed person, watched by the sympathy or the hatred of hundre ds, whose affections must now enter into his account. There is no Lethe for this. Ah, that he could pass again into his neutrality! Who can thus avoid all pledges, and having observed, observe again from the same unaffected, unbiased, unbribable, unaffrighted innocence, must always be formida ble. He would utter opinions on all passing affairs, which being seen to be not private, but necessa ry, would sink like darts into the ear of men, and put them in fear.These are the voices which we hear in solitude, but they grow faint and inaudible as we enter into the world. Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members. Society is a joint-stock company, in which the members agree, for the better securing of his bread to each shareholder, to surrender the liberty and culture of the eater. The virtue in most request is c onformity. Self-reliance is its aversion. It loves not realities and creators, but names and customs. Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist. He who would gather immortal palms must no t be hindered by the name of goodness, but must explore if it be goodness. Nothing is at last sacre d but the integrity of your own mind. Absolve you to yourself, and you shall have the suffrage of t he world. I remember an answer which when quite young I was prompted to make to a valued adv iser, who was wont to importune me with the dear old doctrines of the church. On my saying, Wha t have I to do with the sacredness of traditions, if I live wholly from within? my friend suggested, — "But these impulses may be from below, not from above." I replied, "They do not seem to me t o be such; but if I am the Devil's child, I will live then from the Devil." No law can be sacred to m e but that of my nature. Good and bad are but names very readily transferable to that or this; the o nly right is what is after my constitution, the only wrong what is against it. A man is to carry himse lf in the presence of all opposition, as if every thing were titular and ephemeral but he. I am asham ed to think how easily we capitulate to badges and names, to large societies and dead institutions. Every decent and well-spoken individual affects and sways me more than is right. I ought to go up right and vital, and speak the rude truth in all ways. If malice and vanity wear the coat of philanthr opy, shall that pass? If an angry bigot assumes this bountiful cause of Abolition, and comes to me with his last news from Barbadoes, why should I not say to him, 'Go love thy infant; love thy woo d-chopper: be good-natured and modest: have that grace; and never varnish your hard, uncharitabl e ambition with this incredible tenderness for black folk a thousand miles off. Thy love afar is spit e at home.' Rough and graceless would be such greeting, but truth is handsomer than the affectatio n of love. Yourgoodness must have some edge to it, — else it is none. The doctrine of hatred must be preached as the counteraction of the doctrine of love when that pules and whines. I shun father and mother an d wife and brother, when my genius calls me. I would write on the lintels of the door-post, Whim.I hope it is somewhat better than whim at last, but we cannot spend the day in explanation. Expect me not to show cause why I seek or why I exclude company. Then, again, do not tell me, as a good man did to-day, of my obligation to put all poor men in good situations. Are they my poor? I tell t hee, thou foolish philanthropist, that I grudge the dollar, the dime, the cent, I give to such men as d o not belong to me and to whom I do not belong. There is a class of persons to whom by all spiritu al affinity I am bought and sold; for them I will go to prison, if need be; but your miscellaneous po pular charities; the education at college of fools; the building of meeting-houses to the vain end to which many now stand; alms to sots; and the thousandfold Relief Societies; — though I confess w ith shame I sometimes succumb and give the dollar, it is a wicked dollar which by and by I shall h ave the manhood to withhold.Virtues are, in the popular estimate, rather the exception than the rule. There is the man and his v irtues. Men do what is called a good action, as some piece of courage or charity, much as they wou ld pay a fine in expiation of daily non-appearance on parade. Their works are done as an apology o r extenuation of their living in the world, — as invalids and the insane pay a high board. Their virt ues are penances. I do not wish to expiate, but to live. My life is for itself and not for a spectacle. I much prefer that it should be of a lower strain, so it be genuine and equal, than that it should be gl ittering and unsteady. I wish it to be sound and sweet, and not to need diet and bleeding. I ask prim ary evidence that you are a man, and refuse this appeal from the man to his actions. I know that for myself it makes no difference whether I do or forbear those actions which are reckoned excellent.I cannot consent to pay for a privilege where I have intrinsic right. Few and mean as my gifts may be, I actually am, and do not need for my own assurance or the assurance of my fellows any secon dary testimony.What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think. This rule, equally arduous in a ctual and in intellectual life, may serve for the whole distinction between greatness and meanness. It is the harder, because you will always find those who think they know what is your duty better t han you know it. It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to liv e after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetnes s the independence of solitude.The objection to conforming to usages that have become dead to you is, that it scatters your forc e. It loses your time and blurs the impression of your character. If you maintain a dead church, con tribute to a dead Bible-society, vote with a great party either for the government or against it, spread your table like base housekeepers, — under all these screens I have difficulty to detect the precise man you are. And, of course, so much force is withdrawn from your proper life. But do your wor k, and I shall know you. Do your work, and you shall reinforce yourself. A man must consider wha t a blindman's-buff is this game of conformity. If I know your sect, I anticipate your argument. I he ar a preacher announce for his text and topic the expediency of one of the institutions of his church . Do I not know beforehand that not possibly can he say a new and spontaneous word? Do I not kn ow that, with all this ostentation of examining the grounds of the institution, he will do no such thi ng? Do I not know that he is pledged to himself not to look but at one side, — the permitted side, not as a man, but as a parish minister? He is a retained attorney, and these airs of the bench are the emptiest affectation. Well, most men have bound their eyes with one or another handkerchief, andattached themselves to some one of these communities of opinion. This conformity makes them n ot false in a few particulars, authors of a few lies, but false in all particulars. Their every truth is no t quite true. Their two is not the real two, their four not the real four; so that every word they say c hagrins us, and we know not where to begin to set them right. Meantime nature is not slow to equi p us in the prison-uniform of the party to which we adhere. We come to wear one cut of face and fi gure, and acquire by degrees the gentlest asinine expression. There is a mortifying experience in p articular, which does not fail to wreak itself also in the general history; I mean "the foolish face of praise," the forced smile which we put on in company where we do not feel at ease in answer to co nversation which does not interest us. The muscles, not spontaneously moved, but moved by a low usurping wilfulness, grow tight about the outline of the face with the most disagreeable sensation. For nonconformity the world whips you with its displeasure. And therefore a man must know ho w to estimate a sour face. The by-standers look askance on him in the public street or in the friend' s parlour. If this aversation had its origin in contempt and resistance like his own, he might well go home with a sad countenance; but the sour faces of the multitude, like their sweet faces, have no d eep cause, but are put on and off as the wind blows and a newspaper directs. Yet is the discontent of the multitude more formidable than that of the senate and the college. It is easy enough for a fir m man who knows the world to brook the rage of the cultivated classes. Their rage is decorous an d prudent, for they are timid as being very vulnerable themselves. But when to their feminine rage the indignation of the people is added, when the ignorant and the poor are aroused, when the unint elligent brute force that lies at the bottom of society is made to growl and mow, it needs the habit of magnanimity and religion to treat it godlike as a trifle of no concernment.The other terror that scares us from self-trust is our consistency; a reverence for our past act or w ord, because the eyes of others have no other data for computing our orbit than our past acts, and we are loath to disappoint them. But why should you keep your head over your shoulder? Why dr ag about this corpse of your memory, lest you contradict somewhat you have stated in this or that public place? Suppose you should contradict yourself; what then? It seems to be a rule of wisdom never to rely on your memory alone, scarcely even in acts of pure memory, but to bring the past fo r judgment into the thousand-eyed present, and live ever in a new day. In your metaphysics you ha ve denied personality to the Deity: yet when the devout motions of the soul come, yield to them he art and life, though they should clothe God with shape and color. Leave your theory, as Joseph his coat in the hand of the harlot, and flee. A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, ad ored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply not hing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think no w in hard words, and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contr adict every thing you said to-day. — 'Ah, so you shall be sure to be misunderstood.' — Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, a nd Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood.I suppose no man can violate his nature. All the sallies of his will are rounded in by the law of hi s being, as the inequalities of Andes and Himmaleh are insignificant in the curve of the sphere. No r does it matter how you gauge and try him. A character is like an acrostic or Alexandrian stanza; — read it forward, backward, or across, it still spells the same thing. In this pleasing, contrite woo d-life which God allows me, let me record day by day my honest thought without prospect or retro spect, and, I cannot doubt, it will be found symmetrical, though I mean it not, and see it not. My book should smell of pines and resound with the hum of insects. The swallow over my window sho uld interweave that thread or straw he carries in his bill into my web also. We pass for what we are . Character teaches above our wills. Men imagine that they communicate their virtue or vice only by overt actions, and do not see that virtue or vice emit a breath every moment.There will be an agreement in whatever variety of actions, so they be each honest and natural in their hour. For of one will, the actions will be harmonious, however unlike they seem. These variet ies are lost sight of at a little distance, at a little height of thought. One tendency unites them all. T he voyage of the best ship is a zigzag line of a hundred tacks. See the line from a sufficient distanc e, and it straightens itself to the average tendency. Your genuine action will explain itself, and will explain your other genuine actions. Your conformity explains nothing. Act singly, and what you ha ve already done singly will justify you now. Greatness appeals to the future. If I can be firm enoug h to-day to do right, and scorn eyes, I must have done so much right before as to defend me now. Be it how it will, do right now. Always scorn appearances, and you always may. The force of char acter is cumulative. All the foregone days of virtue work their health into this. What makes the ma jesty of the heroes of the senate and the field, which so fills the imagination? The consciousness of a train of great days and victories behind. They shed an united light on the advancing actor. He is attended as by a visible escort of angels. That is it which throws thunder into Chatham's voice, and dignity into Washington's port, and America into Adams's eye. Honor is venerable to us because it is no ephemeris. It is always ancient virtue. We worship it to-day because it is not of to-day. We lo ve it and pay it homage, because it is not a trap for our love and homage, but is self-dependent, sel f-derived, and therefore of an old immaculate pedigree, even if shown in a young person.I hope in these days we have heard the last of conformity and consistency. Let the words be gaze tted and ridiculous henceforward. Instead of the gong for dinner, let us hear a whistle from the Spa rtan fife. Let us never bow and apologize more. A great man is coming to eat at my house. I do not wish to please him; I wish that he should wish to please me. I will stand here for humanity, and th ough I would make it kind, I would make it true. Let us affront and reprimand the smooth mediocr ity and squalid contentment of the times, and hurl in the face of custom, and trade, and office, the f act which is the upshot of all history, that there is a great responsible Thinker and Actor working w herever a man works; that a true man belongs to no other time or place, but is the centre of things. Where he is, there is nature. He measures you, and all men, and all events. Ordinarily, every body in society reminds us of somewhat else, or of some other person. Character, reality, reminds you of nothing else; it takes place of the whole creation. The man must be so much, that he must make al l circumstances indifferent. Every true man is a cause, a country, and an age; requires infinite spac es and numbers and time fully to accomplish his design; — and posterity seem to follow his steps as a train of clients. A man Caesar is born, and for ages after we have a Roman Empire. Christ is b orn, and millions of minds so grow and cleave to his genius, that he is confounded with virtue and the possible of man. An institution is the lengthened shadow of one man; as, Monachism, of the H ermit Antony; the Reformation, of Luther; Quakerism, of Fox; Methodism, of Wesley; Abolition, o f Clarkson. Scipio, Milton called "the height of Rome"; and all history resolves itself very easily in to the biography of a few stout and earnest persons.Let a man then know his worth, and keep things under his feet. Let him not peep or steal, or skul k up and down with the air of a charity-boy, a bastard, or an interloper, in the world which exists f or him. But the man in the street, finding no worth in himself which corresponds to the force whic h built a tower or sculptured a marble god, feels poor when he looks on these. To him a palace, a statue, or a costly book have an alien and forbidding air, much like a gay equipage, and seem to say like that, 'Who are you, Sir?' Yet they all are his, suitors for his notice, petitioners to his faculties t hat they will come out and take possession. The picture waits for my verdict: it is not to command me, but I am to settle its claims to praise. That popular fable of the sot who was picked up dead dr unk in the street, carried to the duke's house, washed and dressed and laid in the duke's bed, and, o n his waking, treated with all obsequious ceremony like the duke, and assured that he had been ins ane, owes its popularity to the fact, that it symbolizes so well the state of man, who is in the world a sort of sot, but now and then wakes up, exercises his reason, and finds himself a true prince.Our reading is mendicant and sycophantic. In history, our imagination plays us false. Kingdom a nd lordship, power and estate, are a gaudier vocabulary than private John and Edward in a small h ouse and common day's work; but the things of life are the same to both; the sum total of both is th e same. Why all this deference to Alfred, and Scanderbeg, and Gustavus? Suppose they were virtu ous; did they wear out virtue? As great a stake depends on your private act to-day, as followed thei r public and renowned steps. When private men shall act with original views, the lustre will be tra nsferred from the actions of kings to those of gentlemen.The world has been instructed by its kings, who have so magnetized the eyes of nations. It has b een taught by this colossal symbol the mutual reverence that is due from man to man. The joyful l oyalty with which men haveeverywhere suffered the king, the noble, or the great proprietor to walk among them by a law of hi s own, make his own scale of men and things, and reverse theirs, pay for benefits not with money but with honor, and represent the law in his person, was the hieroglyphic by which they obscurely signified their consciousness of their own right and comeliness, the right of every man.The magnetism which all original action exerts is explained when we inquire the reason of self-t rust. Who is the Trustee? What is the aboriginal Self, on which a universal reliance may be ground ed? What is the nature and power of that science-baffling star, without parallax, without calculable elements, which shoots a ray of beauty even into trivial and impure actions, if the least mark of in dependence appear? The inquiry leads us to that source, at once the essence of genius, of virtue, an d of life, which we call Spontaneity or Instinct. We denote this primary wisdom as Intuition, whilst all later teachings are tuitions. In that deep force, the last fact behind which analysis cannot go, all things find their common origin. For, the sense of being which in calm hours rises, we know not h ow, in the soul, is not diverse from things, from space, from light, from time, from man, but one w ith them, and proceeds obviously from the same source whence their life and being also proceed. We first share the life by which things exist, and afterwards see them as appearances in nature, and forget that we have shared their cause. Here is the fountain of action and of thought. Here are the l ungs of that inspiration which giveth man wisdom, and which cannot be denied without impiety an d atheism. We lie in the lap of immense intelligence, which makes us receivers of its truth and org ans of its activity. When we discern justice, when we discern truth, we do nothing of ourselves, but allow a passage to its beams. If we ask whence this comes, if we seek to pry into the soul that cau ses, all philosophy is at fault. Its presence or its absence is all we can affirm. Every man discrimin ates between the voluntary acts of his mind, and his involuntary perceptions, and knows that to his involuntary perceptions a perfect faith is due. He may err in the expression of them, but he knows that these things are so, like day and night, not to be disputed. My wilful actions and acquisitions are but roving; — the idlest reverie, the faintest native emotion, command my curiosity and respec t. Thoughtless people contradict as readily the statement of perceptions as of opinions, or rather much more readily; for, they do not distinguish between perception and notion. They fancy that I ch oose to see this or that thing. But perception is not whimsical, but fatal. If I see a trait, my children will see it after me, and in course of time, all mankind, — although it may chance that no one has seen it before me. For my perception of it is as much a fact as the sun.The relations of the soul to the divine spirit are so pure, that it is profane to seek to interpose hel ps. It must be that when God speaketh he should communicate, not one thing, but all things; shoul d fill the world with his voice; should scatter forth light, nature, time, souls, from the centre of the present thought; and new date and new create the whole. Whenever a mind is simple, and receives a divine wisdom, old things pass away, — means, teachers, texts, temples fall; it lives now, and ab sorbs past and future into the present hour. All things are made sacred by relation to it, — one as m uch as another. All things are dissolved to their centre by their cause, and, in the universal miracle, petty and particular miracles disappear. If, therefore, a man claims to know and speak of God, and carries you backward to the phraseology of some old mouldered nation in another country, in anot her world, believe him not. Is the acorn better than the oak which is its fulness and completion? Is the parent better than the child into whom he has cast his ripened being? Whence, then, this worsh ip of the past? The centuries are conspirators against the sanity and authority of the soul. Time and space are but physiological colors which the eye makes, but the soul is light; where it is, is day; w here it was, is night; and history is an impertinence and an injury, if it be any thing more than a ch eerful apologue or parable of my being and becoming.Man is timid and apologetic; he is no longer upright; he dares not say 'I think,' 'I am,' but quotes some saint or sage.He is ashamed before the blade of grass or the blowing rose. These roses under my window make no reference to former roses or to better ones; they are for what they are; they exist with God to-da y. There is no time to them. There is simply the rose; it is perfect in every moment of its existence. Before a leaf-bud has burst, its whole life acts; in the full-blown flower there is no more; in the le afless root there is no less. Its nature is satisfied, and it satisfies nature, in all moments alike. But man postpones or remembers; he does not live in the present, but with reverted eye laments the pa st, or, heedless of the riches that surround him, stands on tiptoe to foresee the future. He cannot be happy and strong until he too lives with nature in the present, above time.This should be plain enough. Yet see what strong intellects dare not yet hear God himself, unless he speak the phraseology of I know not what David, or Jeremiah, or Paul. We shall not always set so great a price on a few texts, on a few lives. We are like children who repeat by rote the sentence s of grandames and tutors, and, as they grow older, of the men of talents and character they chance to see, — painfully recollecting the exact words they spoke; afterwards, when they come into the point of view which those had who uttered these sayings, they understand them, and are willing to let the words go; for, at any time, they can use words as good when occasion comes. If we live trul y, we shall see truly. It is as easy for the strong man to be strong, as it is for the weak to be weak. When we have new perception, we shall gladly disburden the memory of its hoarded treasures as o ld rubbish. When a man lives with God, his voice shall be as sweet as the murmur of the brook an d the rustle of the corn.And now at last the highest truth on this subject remains unsaid; probably cannot be said; for all th at we say is the far-off remembering of the intuition. That thought, by what I can now nearest appr oach to say it, is this. When good is near you, when you have life in yourself, it is not by any know n or accustomed way; you shall not discern the foot-prints of any other; you shall not see the face。
陶洁《美国文学选读》（第3版）笔记和课后习题详解（第18单元尤金
陶洁《美国⽂学选读》（第3版）笔记和课后习题详解（第18单元尤⾦第18单元尤⾦?格拉斯通?奥尼尔18.1复习笔记I.Introduction to author（作者简介）1.Life（⽣平）Eugene Glastone O’Neill(1888-1953)was the greatest playwright of US.He was born in New York.His father was a famous actor and O’Neill traveled around with his father’s group and took a year in Princeton,from which he was expelled because of misbehavior.Then he began his experience of wandering and loafing about which stand him in good stead.In the winterof1912-13he developed tuberculosis and was sent to a sanitarium.In this period he read widely in the world’s dramatic literature.In1916his one-act play Bound East for Cardiff was staged.The event marked the beginning of O’Neill’s long and successful dramatic career and ushered in the modern era of the American Theater.O’Neill was a prize-winning playwright.He received the Pulitzer Prize for his Beyond the Horizon and Anna Christie between1920and1922,and the Nobel Prize in1936.尤⾦·格拉斯通·奥尼尔(1888—1953)是美国最伟⼤的剧作家。
论自助——爱默生
论自助——爱默生任何名副其实的真正的人，都必须是不落俗套的人。
任何采集圣地棕搁叶的人，都不应当拘泥于名义上的善，而应当发掘善之本身。
除了我们心灵的真诚之外，其它的一切归根结蒂都不是神圣的。
解脱自己，皈依自我，也就必然得到世人的认可。
记得，当我还很小的时候，有位颇受人尊重的师长。
他习惯不厌其烦地向我灌输宗教的古老教条。
有一回，我禁不住回了他一句。
听到我说，如果我完全靠内心的指点来生活，那么我拿那些神圣的传统干嘛呢；我的这位朋友提出说：“可是，内心的冲动可能是低下的，而不是高尚的。
”我回答说：“在我看来，却不是如此。
不过，倘若我是魔鬼的孩子，那么我就要照魔鬼的指点来生活。
”除了天性的法则之外，在我看来，没有任何法则是神圣的。
好与坏，只不过是个名声而已，不费吹灰之力，便可以将它从这人身上移到那人身上。
唯一正确的，是顺从自身结构的事物；唯一错误的，是逆自身结构的事物。
一个人面对反对意见，其举措应当像除了他自己之外，其它的一切都是有名无实的过眼烟云。
使我惭愧的是，我们如此易于成为招牌、名份的俘虏，成为庞大的社团和毫无生气的习俗的俘虏。
任何一个正派、谈吐优雅之士都比一位无懈可击的人更能影响我、左右我。
我应当正直坦诚、生气勃勃，以各种方式直抒未加粉饰的真理……我必须做的是一切与我有关的事，而不是别人想要我做的事。
这条法则，在现实生活和精神生活中都是同样艰巨困难的，它是伟大与低贱的整个区别。
它将变得更加艰巨，如果你总是碰到一些自以为比你自己更懂得什么是你的责任的人。
按照世人的观念在这世界上生活是件容易的事；按照你自己的观念，离群索居也不难；但若置身在世人之间，却能尽善尽美地怕然保持着个人独立性，却只有伟人才能办得到。
抵制在你看来已是毫无生气的习俗，是因为这些习俗耗尽你的精力。
它消耗你的时光，隐翳你的性格。
如果你上毫无生气的教堂，为毫无生气的圣经会捐款，投大党的票拥护或反对政府，摆餐桌同粗俗的管家没什么两样──那么在所有这些屏障下，我就很难准确看出你究竟是什么样的人。
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Self-RelianceBy Ralph Waldo Emerson (1817-1862)通常认为，美德完全是意外之举，而非规则。
人跟他的品德是两码事。
人做的那些所谓的善举，如见义勇为、扶危济困之类，就跟他们必须为不参加日常的游行而缴纳罚金作为抵偿一样。
他们干这种事只算是他们在这个世界上生活的一种赔罪或掩饰——好比病人和精神病患者交的巨额的伙食费一样。
他们的美德就是苦修赎罪。
我不想赎罪，我只想生活。
我只为生活而生活，并非为了观赏。
我更希望它能低调一些，好能真实而平等，而不愿意它光彩照人，动荡不安。
我希望它健康甜美，不必去忍受饥饿和病痛。
我要的是“你是个人”这样主要的证据，而不是脱离了人只论及他的行动。
我知道，对于那些所谓的高明行动，无论我是做了还是避免，于我本身来说其实无关紧要。
我拒绝在我已经拥有权力的地方再购买特权。
我虽然无德无能，却是一个真实的存在，因此没必要为了让我自己或我的同伴安心而要求别人给予保证。
（类比、比喻：analogy ）人们所想的事与我无关，我必须做的只是与我有关的事。
这一规定，在现实生活和精神生活中同样至关重要，所以伟大和渺小完全可以据此来区分。
因为你总会发现一些这样的人，他们觉得他们比你还清楚你自己的职责是什么，因此，这一规定显得更加严厉了。
在世界上，以世人的观点生活很容易；在隐居时，以自己的想法生活也不难；可是伟人之所以是伟人，就在于他能在无数俗人之中完美的保持了特立独行的个性。
（排比：parallel construction）因为不顺从，世人就对你处处不满，大加鞭笞。
因此一个人必须学会判断别人的脸色。
无论在街上还是朋友的客厅里，他都会遭人白眼。
假如这种反感像他自己一样也来自鄙视和抵触，他不如耷拉着脸回家算了。
但是人民生气的脸孔跟他们欢喜的脸孔一样，并没有什么深层的原因，而只是随着社会舆论的导向而被操纵着转换。
不过比起议院和学校的不满，群情激愤要可怕多了。
一个有丰富阅历的坚强人物，忍受有教养的阶级的愤怒算不上难事。
他们的愤怒有所节制，因为他们本身胆小如鼠，本来就不堪一击。
但是，如果在他们阴沉的愤怒之外再加上人民的愤怒，如果再有被鼓动起来的无知的穷人，如果还有被激发起来嗷嗷咆哮，龇牙咧嘴的社会最底层的野蛮势力，那么就只能需要极大的胸怀和宗教修养大显身手，把它大事化小小事化了的对待了。
尽管人的行为千差万别，但是总会存在着一种一致性，这样，任何一个行动都会在它们的关键时刻显得实实在在。
因为都是出于同一个意愿，所以无论行为看上去有多大差别，结果必将是和谐统一的。
在一定距离、一定高度的时候，那种行为上的多样性就看不出来了。
一种趋势让它们都连为一体了。
最好的船只的航线也都是蜿蜒曲折的。
如果从远处看这条航线，它就趋于笔直了。
你真正的行动会解释明白你自己，也会解释明白你其他的真正行动。
墨守陈规不能解释任何事情。
独立行动吧，你独立做的事情从现在开始就会证明你的正确。
伟大诉诸于未来。
如果我今天确信自己做对了事情，并且蔑视别人的眼光，那就表明我先前的正确行为正在为今天的自己做辩护。
不管未来什么样，现在就把事情做对。
如果你能永远蔑视外表，那么你就能永远把事情做对。
人格的力量是不断积累的。
以前的种种善举都会让今天的我们受益。
是什么造就了议会和战场中的英雄们让人心潮澎湃的威严。
是因为过去曾经拥有的光辉岁月和辉煌战绩。
这些光辉岁月和辉煌战绩汇成一束光辉，把勇往直前的行动者照亮。
仿佛一队看得见的天使在护送着他。
正是这个东西让查塔姆伯爵声如雷鸣，让华盛顿的举止威严，让美国进入了亚当斯的眼睛。
荣誉之所以让我们充满敬意，是因为它不是转瞬即逝的东西。
它一直是传统的美德。
今天我们之所以崇拜它，恰恰因为它不属于今天。
我们对它热爱、敬仰，只因为它不是为捕捉我们的热爱与敬仰所布下的陷阱，而是自力更生，因而具有一种古老纯洁的血统，即使在一个年轻人身上表现出来，也是这样。
（暗喻：metaphor）Themes爱默生的作品深深地吸引着读者, 特别是《论自助》这篇文章。
它来自于爱默生的散文集,表达了他的超验主义思想。
“相信自己”是它的核心点。
爱默生反对一切形式的模仿作品。
他认为人应该相信自己, 真正的人应该学会如何拒绝随波逐流。
如果一个人害怕民意, 而迫使他做一些改变,他将可能失去导致他成功的创新能力。
如果一个人不想让他自己或社会失望, 就必须遵守在他内心的原则。
但人们谁遵守权威、传统或当前的系统, 意味着打破了这个原则。
最重要的是, 他相信个人主义、独立和自力更生。
他的作品是不容易被理解的。
他重建了文学写作技能的共同形象, 赋予作品新的想法。
一般来说, 读者有一个共同的观点, 即他的思想是特殊的, 独一无二的。
Throughout the essay he gives a defense for his famous catch-phrase “trust thyself.” This argument follows three major points: the self-contained genius, the disapproval of the world, and the value of self-worth.Throughout this essay, Emerson argues against conformity with the world. He gives an archetype for his own transcendental beliefs, but also argues for his slogan “trust thyself.” For someone to transcend their current state, one must lean only on their own understanding, hold a certain level of disregard for the opinions and currents of society, and most importantly hold a respect for self regardless of circumstances and society's opinions.Trust Your Own Inner Voice.......Emerson urges his readers to retain the outspokenness（坦白）of a small child who freely speaks his mind. A child he has not yet been corrupted by adults who tell him to do otherwise.He also urges readers to avoid envying or imitating others viewed as models of perfection; instead, he says, readers should take pride in their own individuality and never be afraid to express their own original ideas.In addition, he says, they should refuse to conform to the ways of the popular culture and its shallow ideals; rather they should live up to their own ideals, even if doing so reaps them criticism and denunciation（谴责）.Avoid Consistency as an End in Itsel f.......Being consistent is not always wise. An idea or regimen to which you stubbornly cling can become outmoded tomorrow.Emerson and Transcendentalism.......Emerson believed every human being has inborn knowledge that enables him to recognize and understand moral truth without benefit of knowledge obtained through the physical senses. Using this inborn knowledge, a gift of God, an individual can make a moral decision without relying on information gained through everyday living, education, and experimentation. One mayliken this inborn knowledge to conscience or intuition.超验主义的主要思想观点有三。
首先，超验主义者强调精神，或超灵，认为这是宇宙至为重要的存在因素。
超灵是一种无所不容、无所不在、扬善抑恶的力量，是万物之本、万物之所属，它存在于人和自然界内。
其二，超验主义者强调个人的重要性。
他们认为个人是社会的最重要的组成部分，社会的革新只能通过个人的修养和完善才能实现。
因此人的首要责任就是自我完善，而不是刻意追求金玉富贵。
理想的人是依靠自己的人。
其三，超验主义者以全新的目光看待自然，认为自然界是超灵或上帝的象征。
在他们看来，自然界不只是物质而已。
它有生命，上帝的精神充溢其中，它是超灵的外衣。
因此，它对人的思想具有一种健康的滋补作用。
超验主义主张回归自然，接受它的影响，以在精神上成为完人。
这种观点的自然内涵是，自然界万物具象征意义，外部世界是精神世界的体现。
Summary of the Essay.......However, if you want to be a man, you must be a nonconformist. Unfortunately, though, we let others have too much influence over us. These may be men of vanity（虚荣）and malice（恶意，怨恨，预谋）who take up philanthropic（仁慈的，博爱的）or noble causes–a bigot（顽固者）, for example, who says he supports abolition but keeps black people at a distance. He loves from afar........Many men think virtue is the exception rather than the rule. They perform acts of charity（慈善）as if they were paying a fine or doing a penance（苦行，忏悔）."I do not wish to expiate（赎罪）, but to live. My life is for itself and not for a spectacle. I much prefer that it should be of a lower strain, so it be genuine and equal, than that it should be glittering and unsteady.".......I do not need or want the approval of other men. What I believe I should do is what concerns me, not what other people think I should do. Of course, it is not easy to follow your own inner voice, for there are always those who will try to make you conform to the public will. It is easy in the world to live after the world’s opinion; it is easy in solitude（独居）to live after our own; but the great "man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.".......I wish we could do away with consistency and conformity. Men who listen to themselves rather than to the common herd are true men. And it is true men who leave their mark on history........If all men became self-reliant, then all of their activities and institutions would be better: religion, education, the way they live, the way they think.。