Choose one of the main ideas emerson develops about transcendentalism in "self-reliance." write an essay of at least two hundered words exploring this idea. cite examples from the essay.

One of the basic ideas of Emerson's essay is the idea of wisdom. Even in the first paragraph of the essay, Emerson turns the notion of wisdom upside down. Contrary to what most people think (or are taught to think), wisdom is not the essence of great people's thought. Wisdom is the essence of our own thought, and self-reliance is the courage to believe yourself, instead of always relying on others. "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." Emerson thinks that the real genius is in the individual that seeks universality, and dares to become universal.

People who are perceived as the wisest, such as Plato, Moses, etc., are actually those who have listened to their intuition and were brave enough to make a statement of it, instead of listening to others and interpreting them. "In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts: they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty." Our rejected thoughts are the consequence of the fact that we lacked the courage to admit and declare those thoughts as our own, unique, original, wise. So, wisdom is not carved in stone. It is the lingering essence of individuality. If this individuality is not brave enough, it will never realize itself. If it dares to oppose all conventions and to expose itself to the world, it will shine with all its magnificence, untainted with opportunism.