Themes
Whoso would be a man, must be a nonconformist.
— Ralph Waldo Emerson • Self-Reliance
Behind the line May contain spoilers.
Our reading
An editorial interpretation.
Emerson argues that real manhood cannot be borrowed from the crowd. Anyone who wants to be fully themself must refuse to follow accepted opinion and custom, accepting disapproval as the price of thinking and acting on their own authority.
Context reviewed