In todays time people often follow the norm and do what others do in order to fit in and be accepted by others. Thinking on your own and doing what you think has greatly disappeared in today's time. Many authors have addressed this issue and have written about becoming more independent and doing what we think and what our conscience tells us. "The Moral Obligations of Living in a Democratic Society" by Cornell West addresses how people today value things that are not of value and how few  elite people control today's society. In "Self-Reliance" by Ralph Waldo Emerson, it talks about how we should focus on being ourselves and not conform to society and how it will make the World a better place. Emerson and West are both advocating for how to make our lives better and to live in a more meaningful way. Through comparing the works of Emerson and West, we can see the question of how being ourselves and being independent can make society a better place for us and everyone else.

"The Moral Obligations of Living in a Democratic Society" by Cornell West discusses how society values material objects over the necessities of life. In his writing West calls these material objects that we want to buy and have market values, because we can physically buy them. He calls things that we cannot buy, but are important to life nonmarket values. West lists some nonmarket values in his writing "Mercy, justice; they are nonmarket. Care, service; nonmarket. Solidarity, fidelity; nonmarket. Sweetness and kindness and gentleness. All nonmarket."(West 459). Obviously West is advocating that the nonmarket values are more important in life than any market value. With this West also shows how the more important one of the two happens to be the free one that anyone can have. In life anybody can be kind and loving and it does not cost money, yet people are all worried about buying all the materialistic items because they want to have what other people have. West also talks about how people are lumped together and how people are thought of similarly because of their places in society. West is talking about stereotypes and how people are categorized because they follow other people and do what they do, therefore putting them as similar in people's eyes. With this he discusses how much of the upper class has a large amount of America's money and therefore they have the most influence in society. Then, the middle class according to West is on the decline and becoming less relevant because their voice is not heard. West says that the middle class is vital to democracy and therefore this must be changed. Therefore, West's overall argument is that we need not value material objects as much but rather things that anyone can have no matter the amount of money they have. West also discusses how society is becoming divided and that people need to come together and form a sense of community. In my opinion I see this text as a big argument that we are self-absorbed and that West wants this to end. People in society are often all seen as similar, however while being different we need to come together with other people and not just focus on us. This text really shows how people are focused on things they want and it causes them to forget about being a member of society. Overall, West is urging people to value to the right things in life that make us and society better and to realize what is more important, moral values and not money.

 Similarly, Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote many things throughout the nineteenth century that address how people have become too focused on being socially accepted. Emerson is one of the main figures of the transcendental movement and wrote much about nature and new thought. One of Emerson's works, "Self-Reliance," is about being you and not conforming to be like those around you. In this work, the main focus of Emerson is individualism and he stresses that people should think for themselves. He talks about how people follow others and do what they see other people do and that this is not the way to live life.  People do not necessarily do this on purpose, but sometimes they follow others lead without thinking if they really want to do it. Towards the beginning of "Self-Reliance" Emerson opens a paragraph with "Trust thyself", (Emerson 439) and this greatly sums up the overall meaning of the essay. Trusting yourself seems like something that is easy to do, however if all of the people around you do something different it can become hard. When they all do something different we should have no problem trusting our conscience according to Emerson. He does not want people to change in order to be like others and he stresses this early in his work, by saying that "the voices which we hear in solitude, but they grow faint and inaudible as we enter into the world" (Emerson 440). Through this Emerson is showing that our personal thoughts become less relevant to us because we are so worried and focused on fitting into society. Fitting into society has become more important in our society than being ourselves and this is unfortunate and needs to change. Also with this quote, Emerson is telling us to follow our conscience and be ourselves, which is very difficult in today's time. Everyone today is so focused on fitting in, when if they were just themselves then they may be happier and be more content with their life. In the later part of "Self-Reliance" Emerson talks about how we have become too focused on what we have rather than other more important things in life. He shows this when he says "They measure their esteem of each other by what each has, and not by what each is." (Emerson 454). By saying this he shows that we have become materialistic and are not focused on who we are as a person, which in his view is more important. Who we are as an individual will take us a lot further in life than what we have materialistically and many in the world have forgot this. Overall, Emerson is arguing for people to be themselves and not change and be like others and to value the right things, which includes being the best person that we can be and not trying to get the most things in life.

Between Ralph Waldo Emerson and Cornell West, we can learn a lot about how to be a better person in society and make our selves a better person. Society in the twenty-first century has become very caught up in materialistic items and trying to have more money than someone else. After reading Emerson and West we can learn that this is not the way to live life and that we should change our perspectives. Both of these readings work to teach us to be who we are, and to not focus on things that are not important in life. Both authors agree that people come together and form norms and that this is not the way society should be, they both advocate for being independent. Being independent is more difficult than imagined, because we will often do what those around us do because they are our friends.  However, we should try harder to listen to our conscience and do what we want to do because it will often make us happier in the long term. Also both authors work to teach the reader that they should not value materialistic values as much, but rather important things in life. West and Emerson both go to the point that material objects do not last and are not relevant later in life and do not impact those around us. Rather being a good person or nonmarket values make us a better individual, and also impact those around us and leave an impact on the world long after we are gone. Morals are something that have started to lack in the world today because people are so focused on themselves and making their lives as good as possible with money and objects. So people should read these works because they work together in order to talk about society and how it could be changed in order to make the world a better place. The theme between these two papers is that society needs to change and regain focus on the right things in order to be better. 

In addition, Both West and Emerson address the role of society in their works. Cornell West discusses divisions in society that have been created through the years. He is not only referencing class divides caused by money, but also from other aspects. West wants us to break these divides and come closer together with people around us. However Emerson, talks about how society can cause us to get away from being who we truly are as a person. He thinks that when we look to society that there is a good chance we go with what it thinks and not what we think. So while both Emerson and West agree on being ourselves and valuing the right things, they both have differing views on the role that society should play.

Ralph Waldo Emerson's "Self-Reliance" and "The Moral obligations of living in a democratic society" by Cornell West are two works that advocate for looking into our lives and how we live.  Both want the reader to be himself or herself and not be someone they are not because that has become an ever growing theme in today's society. I believe that being ourselves is one of the greatest things because we often forget about ourselves in life, and do not do what we want. Also we need to become a less materialistic society and this can be seen in the works of Emerson and West. However, while agreeing on being yourself they do see society as having different roles. Both works want people to be a better person and change their lives after reading them, yet both offer different ways to achieve a similar goal. 

