Ralph Waldo Emerson

Emerson’s Optimism: Unrealistic or a Search for Complete Understanding? Great men, great nations, have not been boasters and buffoons, but perceivers of the Terror of Life, and have manned themselves to face it (“Fate”). Some readers, critics especially, believe Ralph Waldo Emerson’s writing to be unconvincing because of the optimism that seems fake and unrealistic. Harold Bloom, a very prominent figure in contemporary criticism, said that Emerson was “…by no means the greatest …showed first 75 words of 2350 total…

…showed last 75 words of 2350 total…their cells, giving them a chance to be reborn. He inspired them to change their lives for the better by teaching them to find good things out of evil. “No American writer ever played more roles than Emerson the inspirer, the ‘mystic,’ the poet, and the inhuman perfectionist” (Kazin 28). Emerson touched many readers during his time, and proved his ability to fight past sadness until the last breath to find true happiness within the soul.