No one expects to be thrown out of a moving bus by their mother, but sometimes society and the conditions around people force them to take cross lines and to adopt certain unorthodox methods. The ideals of transcendentalism seek to break these chains that bind our minds and thoughts. Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Thoreau, and Walt Whitman are three important authors and poets who dedicated their lives to the development of these transcendentalist beliefs. The book "Born a Crime" is the key topic of the essay. Here we explore how Trevor Noah uses transcendentalist ideologies of nonconformity, self-sufficiency, and making the most of life to demonstrate the need for rebellion to achieve social justice. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Nonconformity, a major ideology of transcendentalism, is woven into Trevor Noah's life experiences in Born a Crime. Ralph Waldo Emerson was a transcendentalist author who strongly believed in the need for rebellion against the constraints of society. In one of his most famous pieces, Self Reliance, he states that the company is like "a joint-stock company, in which the members undertake, in order to better guarantee bread for each shareholder, to renounce the freedom and culture of those who eat" . . The most requested virtue is conformism." This excerpt demonstrates how people give up their individuality and stop thinking freely once they become part of society. Society encourages people to be similar and maintain a single mind, but transcendentalism believes that each person should form their own opinions instead of conforming to what the rest of society believes. Only through non-conformity can one be truly free and independent. When the mind is free from the barriers of society, change is possible and through change social justice is possible. Born A Crime demonstrates how social justice is achieved through non-conformity in a world where society imposes systematic oppression on Africans. The author, Trevor Noah, was the product of a white man and a black woman in a time when such an act was illegal and apartheid, a government system, designed to subjugate Africans in South Africa. None of these factors stopped Trevor Noah's mother, Patrica Noah, and she “started her little project, [Trevor Noah], at a time when she couldn't have known that apartheid would end. . . it was preparing me to live a life of freedom long before we knew freedom would exist. . . we just went ahead and moved fast, and by the time the law and everyone else got there, we were already miles away.” Despite the conditions in South Africa, Noah's mother did not adapt to society's pressures and decided to have a black child in a world that considered it a criminal act. Apartheid had existed for generations and there was no indication that it would end anytime soon. As for Noah's upbringing, his mother did not raise him the way Black or brown children are expected to be raised. People questioned her methods and “thought my mother was crazy. Skating rinks, drive-ins and suburbs, these things were izinto zabelugnu – white people's things.” Patrica Noah made sure that the opportunities only white children received were available to Noah as well. From books to films, Noah has received exposure that has shaped him into the man he is today. He learned about the world beyond the ghetto and what blacks were forced to be bysociety. It was only through this decision to rebel against the expectation of what a non-white child deserved that Trevor Noah received the childhood, education, and opportunity that every child deserves regardless of the color of their skin. Only through this rebellion was social justice achieved. If Noah's mother had chosen to comply, Trevor Noah's success and opportunities would have been robbed of society. Patrica Noah's rebellion through the transcendentalist ideal of nonconformity helped achieve social justice for her son. Another important belief of transcendentalism evident in Born a Crime is the idea of ​​self-reliance. Walt Whitman, an influential transcendentalist author, describes this pillar of transcendentalism in Song of Myself, 46. Whitman describes life as a journey that “Not I, no one else can travel. . . for you, you have to walk it for yourself. It's not far away, it's within reach, Maybe you've been there since you were born and didn't know it, Maybe it's everywhere, on water and on land.” Whitman describes the path of life that should be walked alone, no matter who you are. Through self-sufficiency, the idea that each person should depend only on themselves and follow their own instincts, one can realize their purpose in life and achieve their goals. Only by depending on themselves can they truly complete the journey ahead. If a person depends on others or chooses to follow in someone else's footsteps, their journey will no longer have the weight, meaning and success that self-confidence can bring. Similarly, Trevor Noah made his way to success by finding his own path in life, not by following someone's lead to get out of the ghetto. He led the way by relying on his technological and business skills. Noah uses crime as a tool to rebel against his situation because “crime does the one thing the government doesn't: crime cares. [...] My life of crime started small, selling pirated CDs on the corner [..] but by neighborhood standards they didn't even qualify as illegal. It never occurred to any of us at the time that we were doing anything wrong.” In a world where opportunities are available only to the rich, the poor, like Trevor Noah, are left without jobs and goals in life after their limited education. They fall back into the self-destructive cycle of the ghettos and very few manage to leave. Trevor Noah managed to become the person he is today only by relying on his skills in writing, mixing and selling pirated music. By relying on himself, Noah was finally able to receive the justice of being able to leave the ghettos and have the opportunity that every man or woman deserves in life. To receive that justice, Noah was forced to rebel against the laws set by society and finally take the success that was his. Trevor Noah's rebellion through self-reliance helped him achieve social justice for himself. Last but not least, making the most of life is the final transcendentalist ideal perceivable in Born a Crime. Henry David Thoreau was an esteemed transcendentalist essayist and truly believed in living life to the fullest. He further developed this pillar of transcendentalism in future works. Thoreau decided to go to live in the wilderness and wrote a piece about his escapades called Walden. He believed he could not live fully in a city or suburb and “wanted to live deeply and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so vigorously and spartanly that he routed everything that was not life, cut a wide furrow and razing to the ground, putting life in a corner and reducing it to its minimum terms." According to Thoreau, the. . ..