What is the central theme of Ralph Waldo Emerson's essay The American Scholar?

Ralph Waldo Emerson was one of the most influential
theoretical contributors to the American Renaissance and Transcendentalism. The works of
Transcendentalists are thematically linked to European Romanticism in their idealism and
their search for a meaningful relationship with nature. Yet, they also strongly argued
for the creation of a distinctively American
culture.

Originally given as a formal address to the
Harvard  Phi Beta Kappa Society in 1837, The American Scholar opens
with a plea for an end to the cultural dependence of America on Europe. Because of this
strong argument for intellectual freedom from tradition, Emerson's speech was described
as "the American intellectual declaration of independence" by Oliver Wendell Holmes.
Emerson then goes on to analyse the influences in the formation of an intellectual
("scholar") and his duty to his fellow men. The central theme of the speech is thus the
intellectual and cultural nurturing that allows common citizens to become
scholars.