The following metaphor appears in "Self-Reliance:""These are the voices which we hear in solitude, but they grow faint and inaudible as we enter into the world." In this metaphor, one's inner voice becomes so soft that we cannot hear it when we are in society. "Voices" stand for our conscience, for what we know is right. When we are swayed by what others think is right, we lose our internal compass. Emerson's essay as a whole is about the...
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