Sofia Torres Garcia

Ms. Storer
English 3 Honors; Block 5
1/21/2020
Socratic Seminar Reflection
I only participated once in the discussion with the question “What parts of Emerson’s
essay did you find most persuasive? What techniques did he use to convince you of his
arguments?”. I said that I found it persuasive when he said that you must share your ideas
because in the future, someone else might say them and they will get praised for it. The textual
evidence I used was “Else, tomorrow a stranger will say with masterly good sense precisely what
we have thought and felt all the time, and we shall be forced to take with shame our own opinion
from another” (Emerson 194). I think it was persuasive because it is relatable and it appealed to
my emotions, because I realized that I need to have confidence in myself. I think my idea was
fine, but I got shy to share my thoughts. I know this is ironic because what I shared was that we
should share our ideas, but I got nervous. For our next Socratic Circle, I will attempt to
participate more and give more insightful ideas.
Our group, facilitated by Andres, started out with the question “What are some of the
things that surround us in the United States today about which Thoreau might cry, ‘Simplify,
simplify’?”. Since everyone was quiet at first, Andres started by saying that he thought Thoreau
would want to simplify gender and religion. We are all entitled to our own opinions, but I think
he made a risky comment that could be considered controversial. Luckily, this was a Socratic
Circle, so the point was to share our opinions without harsh judgment. Then, Sophia Brown
began to talk about materialism and how that is too complicated to live a materialistic lifestyle.
Our next question was “What parts of Emerson’s essay did you find most persuasive? What
techniques did he use to convince you of his arguments?”, where I shared that it was persuasive
when he talked about our ideas being repeated in the future. I think that our conversation did not
flow as well as other groups’, but we did have insightful ideas.
Thesis: Emerson and Thoreau clearly express their transcendentalist views by going
against authority and by emphasizing the importance of nature in their writings. Emmerson was
following the path that was expected of him until his wife’s death gravely impacted his life. His
grief caused him to cut ties with the Church and to become a writer. By doing so, he goes against
Church authority. Thoreau was arrested for not paying his taxes, because he didn’t think he
should pay to support a community he didn’t ask to be a part of. He goes against the government
and speaks out against the Church. In Nature, Emmerson describes the importance that nature
plays on spirituality, and claims that in order to fully experience God, one must go into solitude
with nature. That is exactly what Thoreau does; he lives in Emmerson’s property, in a tiny little
hut where he writes.
I think that Emmerson’s ideas on isolation are partly right. He believes that in order to
experience God, one must be isolated in nature. For example, I cannot do homework when I am
somewhere that is not my desk or if I am doing some other thing at the same time. For this paper,
I was watching Netflix, and now I ended up rushing the paper and not doing my best quality
writing. In order to do my best, I must have full focus over what I am doing.