The Non-Conformists: American Romanticism's Founding Fathers

When American Romanticism came to the forefront of United States literature during the 19th century, revolutionary ideas like individualism were being explored by different authors hoping to enlighten their readers with an alternative perspective on the current state of society.

For instance, Ralph Waldo Emerson claimed in his groundbreaking work, "Self-Reliance," that, "To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart, is true for all men,-that is genius."

And in so many words, Emerson, from that work, would soon pioneer the overarching concept that carried this period of literary renaissance: Non-conformity.

For some, non-conformity means having a rebellious attitude and outlook on society's status quo, but for Emerson and other authors during that time, it represented the idea that one should listen to his or her inner voice rather than follow conventional ways.

So with Emerson paving the way with a unique, yet applicable message, many slaves, abolitionists, feminists and Native Americans took his advice to anchor their own push for equality. This rather new concept affected them not only in their communities, but also individually.

Soon after, a literary movement formed as several of Emerson's contemporaries, including Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson and Nathaniel Hawthorne, also expressed these themes in their work.

When discussing the notion of non-conformity, Emerson believed that "character is higher than intellect" and that "imitation is suicide." To him, ideals had more importance than intelligence, so if one did not hold that belief, then the value of life ultimately decreased.

According to Emerson's philosophy, all human beings also needed to think for themselves and tune out the overbearing commands of society. Otherwise, those who did not formulate and adhere to their own beliefs were conforming to the structure of others and becoming "the parrot of other men's thinking."