Individualism — English definition
The belief that the individual — their conscience, freedom, and self-reliance — matters more than conformity to the group; a defining American value.
Where it is taught
- American Literary Movements & Themes — Close Reading & Literary Analysis, English 11: American Voices, Identity & Public Memory, Grade 11
In use
Across every era that follows, a handful of themes keep returning: freedom, identity, individualism, and the American Dream.
American Literary Movements & Themes
Questions using individualism
Problem 1
Choose one theme — freedom, identity, individualism, or the American Dream — and explain in two or three sentences how it might be 'refined' differently by a Transcendentalist writer versus a Modernist writer.
Answer and explanation
Answers vary. For example, a Transcendentalist might treat freedom as an inward, hopeful self-reliance (Thoreau trusting his own conscience at Walden), while a Modernist, writing after the disillusionment of World War I, might treat that same freedom as lonely or hollow — the individual cut loose from any shared certainty. The point is that one theme gets redefined by each era's convictions.