shuts down creative power , and this concept is a main concern of Emerson’sas well. A person must be brave and free from fear, because fear arises from ignorance. A manmust be a free thinker and in the right state he is “Man Thinking” (p. 295). “Man thinking” (p.295) is simply a man thinking for himself without the influence of outside sources. On thecontrary, it is possible for him to become a simple thinker or even the imitator of another man’sthinking. Even ideas that come from the past can be harmful to the free thinker, and may limit hiscreative mind. The study of books, for example, has the potential to transform a man from a freethinking individual to a person that merely takes in information and spits it out. This is exactlywhat Freire speaks of, however; unlike Emerson, he does not acknowledge that this can happenon its own, without a system of education imposing it. A final shared idea between Freire and Emerson is that the full human capacity is not beingutilized. Books and teaching inhibit man’s mind, because they contain ideas which are preset andare rarely subject to interpretation or analysis. According to Emerson, all men have the capacityof becoming a genius, yet he does not encourage people to be genius because sometimes toomuch intellect can be over influencing. Emerson believes that our full worth is not being reachedbecause there are things that are constraining man’s free thinking capabilities. Similarly, yetdifferent, Freire says that oppressors, in some cases, teachers, are not recognizing the full capacityor inner worth of individuals. People are being alienated from free thought, because in theopinion of oppressors, the student’s point of view does not matter. Students are instructed andtrained to listen to the teacher as if he or she knows everything there is to know, and they mustabsorb everything they are told. When a person is told the s...
