Loading Likes... In our first class we discussed how many living in the United States in the early 1800s continued to rely on pirated British literature for inspiration due to the elevated reputation that English writers possessed. I can see how The American Scholar is a particularly revolutionary piece as it advocates for the young men in The United States to develop their own ideologies by going beyond the tendency to rely on ideas by renowned writers such as Locke and Shakespeare. It not only goes directly against the established notion that British literature should be used as defining our thinking, but it questions whether books should be our first source of inspiration and if a formal education, in the way that it existed at the time, is the best way of learning. He advocates against the notion that an education is simply learning from literature but suggests we learn best from life itself. When reading, Emerson argues one must be an inventor when reading: taking what you read and applying it to be significant to your life. He promotes the idea that man can be both a scholar and involved in public labor where they are engaging and learning directly with nature. He argues, “life lies behind us as the quarry from whence we get tiles and copperstone for the masonry of to-day” (Emerson, 217). The American Scholar pushes the American man to be more educated through working with nature, reading creatively, and consistently writing literature relevant for each succeeding generation and thus establishing itself from Europe.