The American Scholar is one of the speeches delivered by Ralph Waldo Emerson on August 31, 1837, to the Phi Beta Kappa Society in Cambridge (World Largest Essay, 2014). People are not born with perfection, everyone learns through trial and error. Mistakes are lessons not yet learned. Therefore, you should try to use knowledge and wisdom. Emerson's speech attempts to determine the true American culture and asks its citizens to preserve the essence of true American culture. Sixty years after declaring independence, American culture was still heavily influenced by Europe. The main goals of Emerson's speech are to create their own American identity through writers, artists, and philosophers, without regard to Europeans, because America was colonized by Europeans until July 4, 1776 (Happy Birthday America, 2014). The only proposal in Emerson's speech is to raise awareness among students and help them learn to be independent. Learn and create, not just copy others, because just copying does not make people civilized. It is the way an individual uses the opportunities given to him. Appreciate and use what we have, never compare to the knowledge of others. Learn from others but never copy from them. He was trying to change the attitude of American academics rather than the American education system at that time. He insisted that American scholars explore their knowledge and ideas and be independent scholars. He says they should be "thinking men and not mere thinkers" because they should be based on an inner spirit of self-reliance and during the time of his speech many men lost their effectiveness among themselves, the world began with one man and that man was divided into many other men so that a work could be composed...... middle of paper ... that would ultimately determine their identity and independence. Therefore, Emerson is very concerned about America's identity and independence and he wanted to achieve this through independent, self-created literature. Thus, he tries to extend his influence on his comrades and scholars to create their own literature by studying nature, referring to the past and being action-oriented and actively involved to gain experiences. Emerson. RW, (1837). The American researcher.2. Goldberg.P, (2014). Happy American Birthday. Retrieved from www.just4kidsmagazine.com/beacon4god/july4.html3. The Declaration of Independence and the American Constitution of the United States, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (m-654/rev.07/08) Retrieved from www.uscis.gov/sites.