Self-Acceptance in Reveries of a Solitary Walker by Rousseau - Research Paper Example

SELF-ACCEPTANCE IN “REVERIES OF A SOLITARY WALKER” BY ROUSSEAU Department Self-acceptance in “reveries of a solitary walker” by Rousseau Self-acceptance requires one to develop a keen familiarity with oneself. If it is difficult for one to accept oneself, it becomes quite an arduous task just to go through the daily routine of life. Everything starts losing significance and nothing gives joy. That is why self-acceptance is critically important to add strength to mind and character. Rousseau was well-aware of the value added by knowledge of self to virtuous performance in life, so he indefinitely stressed on continuous practice and increasing depth of knowledge. If a person does not embrace him/herself and strive to identify sources of happiness which are really scattered around him, then gloomy solitude awaits that person. In the “reveries of a solitary walker” (RSW), Rousseau accepts to be alone and seeks peace in solitude. He is devastated by the death of prince de Conti who was the only source of happiness for him. Following the prince’s death, he is left utterly alone which is why he starts communicating to himself through his work. This research paper seeks to explore the concept of self-acceptance in Rousseau’s book “Reveries of a solitary walker”. This book includes confessions of Rousseau. From these confessions, many critics have attempted to explore self-acceptance. In the first walk, Rousseau clearly details why he chose to write this book. The first reason is now that he has detached himself from the world or the society has chosen to detach itself from him, he is completely alone and aims to discover himself (Rousseau 2011, p. 1). Second reason is also this that he wants to fully devote his remaining time to self-examination and self-acceptance (p. 5). Third reason is that he has started to enjoy reflecting on himself because this practice brings him closer to self-acceptance (pp. 5-6). Fourth reason is that he will derive great pleasure in the future from reading his reveries of past written in RSW (p. 7). Rousseau wrote his reflections “when he was relatively young” (Davis 1999, p. 133). These reasons identified in the first walk of RSW suggest that Rousseau started the journey of realizing his true self just because he completely disconnected from society and people, but as time passed, he began to derive real enjoyment from this practice of talking to himself and writing down his reveries. The fact that RSW is alive still proves that this book is a great guide for anyone who wants to understand the importance of self-acceptance. Rousseau explains in his book that he likes to go to countryside because there, he is close to nature, which helps him in meditating and reflecting. He claims that it is only when he is completely alone that he becomes able to “truly claim to be what nature willed” (p. 12). This suggests that for anyone interested in discovering oneself and getting refreshed, for anyone tired of the pandemonium of city life and willing to reflect on oneself, nature can prove to be a great assistance. A person becomes really true to oneself and starts to feel things he/she has never felt before when utterly alone and surrounded by nature. That is a great time for self-reflection which gradually helps one to accept oneself. To common readers, this perspective to self-acceptance taken by Rousseau suggests that nature can act as a mirror. Nature can help a person to turn within which is a great way described to assist self-reflection. This is because he himself explains in his book that he developed a wish to discover what could be the best way to rejuvenate his soul and mind. The only option which sprang up in his mind was the act of “turning within” (p. 13). Therefore, he distanced himself from everyone and got closer to nature to boost the process of turning within. This act and measures taken by him to fulfil this act helped him immensely in accepting himself. This is exactly what he suggests for others also because without the practice of self-acceptance, one is at greater risk of being consumed by misanthropy and melancholy. Rousseau in RSW “encourages self-acceptance and the release from shame” (Orwin and Tarcov 1997, p. 295). This is why exploring the concept of self-contemplation in RSW is critically importance. When masses of people are today seen lost in bitter thoughts and caught up in their past misfortunes, self-meditation is the only key to survival. It is important to take time out and actively engage in the habit of self-reflection because intimate view of the soul and mind can help one to get over all misfortunes and possibly even forget about them. In the present mechanic way of living life which is popular around the world, not only have people lost contact with nature, but they have also lost themselves (Venkataraman 2014). They find themselves mulling old mishaps over and over again which generates a toxic cascade of bitter thoughts that gradually starts to eat a person alive. But, the benefit of self-acceptance, as scrutinized by Rousseau in RSW, is that a person slowly starts to accept his/her failures and stops being unnecessarily harsh on him/herself. Rousseau’s narration or reveries also suggest that as he submerged himself in the practice of self-contemplation, he gradually broke free from the clutches of his misfortunes and bitter memories. He starts his first walk with this bitter dialogue, “So here I am, all alone on this earth, with no brother, neighbour, or friend, and no company but my own” (p. 3). He is increasingly bitter in the beginning of his reveries and blames everyone for being the cause of torment for him. However, the activity of solitary self-reflection soon starts to compensate for everything else and helps him accept himself with all his flaws. Rousseau argues with memory and fixes the sins of his past by way of self-contemplation (Wood et al. 2013). This is his only option to discover his self which he loses in the journey of life and mayhem of society. It is due to this loss of self that he complains of being “banished by the rest of society” (Rosseau 2011, p. 3). In the start, he fails to acknowledge other people as humans and considers himself the most superior. He complains that he only ceased to associate with others when they fell short of acting human. This is because Rousseau’s idea of self is very small when he began writing his reveries. However, as he goes deeper and deeper in the quest to find himself, he comes closer to accepting himself which also helps him to forgive others and forget bitterness of the past. This suggests that Rousseau’s concept of happiness is based on “self-mastery” (Jonas 2013). RSW has great lessons for readers because it is a common practice to see those people acting indifferently and destroying themselves who have no idea of self. Rousseau has contributed a lot to wellbeing of humanity by writing his reveries because they help a naïve person to understand the important of self-actualization. He also forcefully emphasized on the role played by nature in bringing a man closer to self-acceptance. According to him, it is estrangement from nature which has taken away the idea of self from human beings. The change of lifestyle has proved to be very harmful because “man’s estrangement from nature is fundamentally linked to his estrangement from his own natural (i.e., physical) self” (Lane and Clark 2006, p. 63). In addition to forgetting the meaning of self, detachment from nature also taken a man away from his fellow human beings. References Davis, Michael. 1999. The Autobiography of Philosophy: Rousseau’s The Reveries of the Solitary Walker. Rowman & Littlefield. Jonas, Mark E. 2013. “Rousseau’s Apolitical Prescription for Happiness: Virtue, Self-Mastery, and Sexual Differentiation in the Educations of Sophie and Emile.” philosophy-of-education.org. Accessed March 24, 2013. http://www.philosophy-of-education.org/uploads/2013%20Conference/papers/jonas.pdf Lane, Joseph H., and Rebecca R. Clark. 2006. “The Solitary Walker in the Political World.” Political Theory 34.1: 62-94. Orwin, Clifford, and Nathan Tarcov. 1997. The Legacy of Rousseau. University of Chicago Press. Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. 2011. Reveries of the Solitary Walker. Trans. Russel Goulbourne. Oxford University Press. Wood, James, Will Self, Iain Sinclair, and Robert Macfarlane. “WG Sebald: Reveries of a solitary walker.” The Guardian. Accessed April 20, 2013. http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/apr/20/wg-sebald-reveries-solitary-walker Venkataraman, Prabhu. “Nature as a Catalyst for Development and Self-Reflection in Rousseau’s Reveries of a Solitary Walker.” academia.edu. Accessed 2014. http://www.academia.edu/5481457/Nature_as_a_Catalyst_for_Development_and_Self-Reflection_in_Rousseaus_Reveries_of_a_Solitary_Walker Read More