tar for a thousand years?” (Paragraph 1). In this passage, Emerson uses simile to demonstrate his firm believe in the positive future of intellectualism (more specifically, poetry) in American life. Emerson believes that despite the public’s frequent talk about the reduced quality of the contemporary poetry, the poetry will be brought back to life when American scholars realize the power of their words to effect change in society. Emerson wanted American authors to feel empowered by his speech, like the power and energy of the star, lightyears away.
Emerson also uses repetition to emphasize his belief that truly complete men are not tied to any one job or profession. Rather, enlightened men are every profession at the same time. “[A complete] Man is not a farmer, or a professor, or an engineer, but he is all. Man is priest, and scholar, and statesman, and producer, and soldier” (Paragraph 4). The parallel structure of the last sentence in the quote conveys a sense of importance about the content of the quote. Emerson uses repetition to draw attention to the fact that a man is capable of being every profession at once—and it is only when he pursues an understanding in a multiplicity of fields that he can call himself a man.
Emerson’s final message to his listeners was that the literature of the past is not worthy of worship and reverence in today’s world. According to Emerson, every generation must write its own literature, because older literature from previous will never have the same powerful effect on today’s audience that it had on its original audience. “Each age, it is found, must write its own books; or rather, each generation for the next succeeding. The books of an older period will not fit this” (Paragraph 12). Emerson uses a metaphor to make this point even clearer. Literature only suits the era in which it was written. “As no air-pump can by any means make a perfect vacuum, so neither can any artist entirely exclude the conventional, the local, the perishable from his book or write a book of pure thought, that shall be as efficient, in all respects, to a remote posterity, as to cotemporaries, or rather to the second age” (Paragraph 12). Emerson compares artists to air pumps in order to prove his point that all artists will include some “perishable” elements in their books that will cause their books to be less valuable to the next generation, just as all vacuums will leave some air in a container. According to Emerson, this is a reason to rejoice! He seeks to encourage the current generation of scholars to write their own great literature and forget about the old European classics.
Using literary devices like metaphor, simile, and repetition, Emerson conveys special meaning to the reader on numerous occasions throughout his oration. His skilled use of these devises emphasizes his main points and often creates vivid imagery in the reader’s mind. No doubt, The American Scholar is a powerful piece of literature with an essential message. It calls out to American scholars to change their current lifestyles and create lives of worth and matter. Emerson’s arguments against the idolization of classic literature help to spark a revolution in American literature that had a profound effect on American culture and academia for hundreds of years.
Cheevers, Susan. American Bloomsbury: Louisa May Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry David Thoreau; Their Lives, Their Loves, Their Work. Detroit: Thorndike Press, 2006. 80.
Emerson, Ralph Waldo. “Addresses.” Nature; Addresses and Lectures. The American Scholar. 30 Mar. 2008. 30 Apr. 2008 <http://www.emersoncentral.com/amscholar.htm>.
Mignon, Charles W. “The American Scholar: Introduction to the Essay.” CliffsNotes. 30 Apr. 2008 <http://www.cliffsnotes.com/WileyCDA/LitNote/Emerson-s-Essays-The-American-Scholar-Introduction-to-the-Essay.id-95,pageNum-14.html>.
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