A LITTLE ESSAY PROVOKED BY EMERSON (SPRING 2008)

We’ve discussed two essays from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s The Conduct of Life. Both deal with a question Emerson poses in “Fate”: “How shall I live?”  “Power” offers a direction: “Life is a search after power.”

The question from “Fate” is the reason we are reading Emerson in English 490.  I have ventured to assume that Emerson’s thoughts on this topic are still pertinent in 2008, and that however musty or misty you find the language, you will still need to wrestle with the issues Emerson points to, and you will still find some useful insights into how the world works and what you have to do to fit into it. 

So, now, I’d like you to consider Emerson’s ideas in “Power,” using some of the particulars of three lives as a testing ground for his sense of things.  Which three lives?  Stephen Schwarzman’s, Buddy Levy’s, and yours.  The pertinent details of Schwarzman’s life can be found in "The Birthday Party" by James B. Stewart in The New Yorker for Feb 11/18.

About 750 words, due March 5.