Favour Ulasi

  Mrs. Irving   

  American Literature 1

27 August 2015.

Life As We Know It

                                                   

I believe on a certain level like Ralph Waldo Emerson that self- reliance and individuality means living life to the fullest. Whereas, I also agree with Ambrose Bierce that humor and entertainment can be found in everyday life.

Self-reliance means living life to the fullest in the aspect that nothing can bring us peace than ourselves. Some people feel that institutions such as religion or society are completely useless in dictating behavior, that we should only “trust thyself”. I do feel that there is conformity in this world, and their fear of the regard of others is stronger than their own love of themselves. People are told how to behave, think, feel and act through peers, the media and other standards. So there is certain amount of negative conformity of mindless shaping of oneself to fit in. If more people were happy with who they were, regardless of external factors, they wouldn’t feel the urge to conform. However, there are some standard laws, morals that I feel are there for the common good of mankind, and if we were to reject them out of hand simply because it is “conforming”, then it could lead to chaos. Alexander Super-tramp is a great example of a person who was self-reliant, and he didn’t conform to the government. He broke some laws and portrayed civil disobedience. We should not conform our personality, self-esteem and individual regard to other people but maintain civility and decency in society and morals.

Humor is something that is funny, comical and amusing. There are many types of humor and what appears to be humorous to one may not be humorous to another. Humor and entertainment can be found in movies, books, jokes and in everyday life. Because laughter is good for us, humor and entertainment can play an important role in our everyday life and health. Satirist; Ambrose Bierce was an entertaining person who made fun of this society, he sees the world and interacts with it in his writing.

Both concepts are worth debating over and people are always going to have their own opinion. One who is self-reliant brings satisfaction to him or herself and trusts in their own intuition ;whereas, humor and entertainment makes life joyful and amusing.