<p>essay</p>
<p>I would really appreciate it if someone could give me some input on this practice essay. Thanks!!</p>
<p>Assignment: Do we need other people in order to understand ourselves? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations.</p>
<p>In modern society, individuals rely a great deal on others to understand themselves. Many people constantly seek the approval and affection of others in order to give meaning to their lives. However, other people are not needed for us to understand ourselves. This is evident through an analysis of works of literature, such as Siddhartha and ideas, such as Transcendentalism.</p>
<p>In literature, Herman Hesse's Siddhartha illustrates how an individual does not need others to understand himself. Siddhartha, the main character, grows up in a religious society where he is taught that he needs to perform certain rituals to attain self-understanding, or enlightenment. Siddhartha realizes that this is not true, and he leaves to become an ascetic. However, the ascetics also follow rituals, and he eventually leaves them to live his own life, while his friend, Govinda, becomes a ritual performing monk. After many years of individual contemplation, Siddhartha attains self-understanding (enlightenment) while Govinda the monk does not. This proves that other people are not needed for us to understand ourselves as Siddhartha becomes enlightened without the instruction of others.</p>
<p>Furthermore, the idea of Transcendentalism supports the notion that others are not needed to understand ourselves. This philosophy states taht a spiritual presence transcends all living things and that individuals can understand themselves and nature without the assistance of others. Famous Transcendentalists such as Thoreau and Emerson illustrate this philosophy in works such as Walden. In Walden, Emerson goes into the woods alone for the duration of a year and in that period of time, he wrote a book about his experiences and his new-found understanding of himself and nature. Transcendentalists were also known to seclude themselves from society and live among nature to attain self-understanding. Their effectiveness is illustrated by the long-lasting effect their ideas have had on American society.</p>
<p>Finally, many in today's society define themselves through what others think of them. However, history and literature have shown that the approval of others is simply minutia and that all one needs to understand himself, is simply, himself.</p>