Discuss the ways in which Emerson’s “Self-Reliance” and the selections we read from Nature provides a motivational impetus for our sense of individualism and personal achievement. How does Emerson define self-reliance or individualism in his essay?

In many respects Roderick in Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” appears to be mad, yet at the end of the story he calls the narrator a “madman,” the very character that most readers identify with as being sane. If madness is a part of this story, what kind of statement does Poe seem to be making about it? Just how is he defining it and who is really “mad” in the story?
In Hawthorne’s “The Birth-Mark,” discuss the significance of the symbolic “hand” on Georgiana’s cheek. Why does Aylmer have such an issue with it? Why does Georgiana agree to have it removed? Why does Aminidab think it is best left alone? Consider the hand’s description or you may also consider that Aylmer is going against “nature.”
In Alcott’s “The Brothers,” how does the outcome of Bob’s final encounter with “Marster Ned” differ from his earlier one in the hospital? In what ways has the narrator’s attitude changed regarding Bob’s actions toward Ned by the end of the story?
How does Thoreau’s description of the lake (in “The Ponds”) serve as a metaphor for how he sees the human soul and its relation to the universe? How does this description parallel Emerson’s notion of the individual soul and its relationship to the Over-soul? You may also discuss how the idea of the individual soul as a microcosm of the divine shapes the Transcendentalist (and American) notion of Individualism.
Discuss the ways in which Emerson’s “Self-Reliance” and the selections we read from Nature provides a motivational impetus for our sense of individualism and personal achievement. How does Emerson define self-reliance or individualism in his essay?

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