"Self-Reliance" by Ralph Waldo Emerson

To my understanding, what Emerson is saying is people tend to define themeslves in society by their actions, to which group or church they belong, to their "ranking" of how they mentally compare to others. We tend to base our ranking in society on how we think others see us and we are even swayed to change our habits if we feel unaccepted. However, Emerson belives that only foolish people who don't trust their insticits behave this way. He goes as far as to say that "whoso would be a man must a nonconformist"( 21) and  to "Trust thyself" (20). If one rejects their true beliefs to feel higher in society they are no man, they are spineless. Letting others mold one's character would be completley unacceptable in his opinion. Emerson says that the great man is he who " in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude" (23). We don't always need to find a palce to fit in.