Self Reliance and Other Essays Lesson Plan

Reread the following excerpt from "Self-Reliance": "No law can be sacred to me but that of my nature. Good and bad are but names very readily transferable to that or this; the only right is what is after my constitution; the only wrong what is against it." How does this excerpt impact you? What is the law "of your nature," or the law "after your constitution"? What would happen if everyone held only their own laws sacred? Is Emerson advocating anarchism? How do you think Emerson's critics would respond to these ideas?

Students are encouraged to analyze this passage closely, determining specific definitions for "nature," "constitution," "hold sacred," and "anarchism."...