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今天的托福課非常具有啟發性。教導大家要勇於面對自我; 屏除過去陳規與陋習並展望光明未來 :)

Listen to part of a lecture in a literature class.

Professor Pr ofessor Professor Professor

All right, so let me close today’s class with some thoughts to keep in mind

while you are doing tonight’s assignment. You will be reading one of Ralph

Waldo Emerson ’s best-known essays ‘Self-Reliance’ and comparing it with his

poems and other works. I think this essay has the potential to be quite

meaningful for all of you as young people who probably wonder about things

like truth and where your lives are going - all sorts of profound questions.

Knowing something about Emerson’s philosophies will help you when you

read ‘Self-Reliance’. And basically, one of the main beliefs that he had was

about truth. Not that it’s something that we can be taught, Emerson says it’s

found within ourselves. So this truth, the idea that it’s in each one of us, is one

of the first points that you’ll see Emerson making in this essay. It’s a bit

abstract but he’s very into…ah… into each person believing his or her own

thought, believing in yourself, the thought or conviction that’s true for you. But

actually, he ties that in with a sort of ‘universal truth’ – something that everyone

knows but doesn’t realize they know. Most of us aren’t in touch with ourselves

in a way, so we just aren’t capable of recognizing profound truth. It takes

geniuses, people like, say, Shakespeare, who’re unique because when they

have a glimpse at this truth, this universal truth, they pay attention to it and

express it and don’t just dismiss it like m ost people do.

So Emerson is really into each individual believing in and trusting him or

herself. You’ll see that he writes about, well, first, conformity. He criticizes that

people of his time for abandoning / abandon / abundant / their own minds and their own wills for the

sake of conformity and consistency. They try to fit in with the rest of the world

even though it’s at odds with their beliefs and their identities. Therefore, it’s

best to be a non-conformist – to do your own thing, not worrying about what

other people think. That’s an important point. He really drives this argument

home throughout the essay.

When you are reading, I want you to think about that and why that kind of

thought would be relevant to the readers of his time. Remember this is 1838,

‘Self-Reliance’ was a novel idea at the time and the United State’s citizens

were less secure about themselves as individuals and as Americans. The

country as a whole was trying to define itself. Emerson wanted to give people

something to really think about, help them find their own way and what it meant

to be who they were. So that’s something that I think is definitely as relevant

today as it was then, probably, um, especially among young adults like

yourselves, you know, uh, college being a time to sort of really think about who

you are and where you’re going.

Now we already said that Emerson really emphasizes non-conformity, right, as

a way to sort of not lose your own self and identity in the world, to have your

own truth and not be afraid to listen to it. Well, he takes this a step further. Not

conforming also means, uh, not conforming with yourself or your past. What

does that mean? Well, if you’ve always been a certain way or done a certain

thing, but it’s not working for you any more, or you’re not content, Emerson

says that it’d be foolish to be consistent even with our own past. ‘Focus on the

future,’ he says, “That's what matters more. Inconsistency is good.”

He talks about a ship’s voyage and this is one of the most famous bits of the

essay - how the best voyage is made u p of zigzag lines. Up close, it seems a

little all over the place, but from farther away, the true path shows and in the

end it justifies all the turns along the way. So, don’t worry if you are not sure

where you’re headed or what your long-term goals are. Stay true to yourself

and it’ll make sense in the end. I mean, I can attest to that. Before I was a

literature professor, I was an accountant. Before that, I was a newspaper

reporter. My life is taking some pretty interesting turns and here I am, very

happy with my experiences and where they’ve brought me. If you rely on

yourself and trust your own talents, your own interest, don’t worry, your pa th

will make sense in the end.