Question

What ironic point does the author make in paragraph 2?Excerpt from Society and Solitude (excerpt II)

Answer 1

Answer:

It talks about an individual having different set of ideas while with group of people and another set of understanding when with just one person.

Explanation:

Excerpt from Society and Solitude (excerpt II)

Ralph Waldo Emerson

2 It by no means follows that we are not fit for society, because soirées are tedious, and because the soirée finds us tedious. A backwoodsman, who had been sent to the university, told me that, when he heard the best-bred young men at the law school talk together, he reckoned himself a boor; but whenever he caught them apart and had one to himself alone, then they were the boors, and he the better man. And if we recall the rare hours when we encountered the best persons, we then found ourselves, and then first society seemed to exist. That was society, though in the transom of a brig, or on the Florida Keys.  

From the above paragraph 11 from Society and Solitude by Ralph Waldo Emerson, the main point the author is emphasizing on is that "individual has one idea about himself when he or she is with set people but have another set of plan or idea when he is with just a single individual.

Answer 2

Answer: People are bored by society, but society is also bored by them.

Explanation: The author makes the ironic point that People are bored by society, but society is also bored by them. He is saying that boredom comes more from the social situations than from the qualities of the people themselves.