“I Am Not Strange, I Am Just Not Normal.”

Salvador Dali surely made his presence in this world by not being normal. Salvador Dali was a Spanish painter in the 1930’s known for his surrealist style work and his eccentric personality. “Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood.” This is a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Self Reliance.

In Emerson’s writings he explains what it is to be a nonconformist. As Salvador Dali has lived his life freely without fear of judgement or rejection, he was truly inspiring. He said many things, and painted many paintings that were known for being abstract and different.

Dali gave light on a different perspective of life, and gave hope to many people. Salvador Dali, as a whole, was non-conformity. “Great men have always done so, and confided themselves childlike to the genius of their age, betraying their perception that the absolutely trustworthy being.

” (Emerson). This line from Self Reliance really encompasses Emerson’s idea of non-conformity. In Self Reliance, Emerson is saying so much more than “be yourself”. Emerson believes that non-conformity is trusting and following all of your instincts, no matter how odd they are, they’re yours, and they are your ultimate truth. Emerson says non-conformity is trusting and following your instincts without any hesitation. Despite what people think, you should never let the world around you influence your choices.

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Listen to yourself, because just as Emerson says, you are the only “absolutely trustworthy being”. Non-Conformity also includes selfishness. To truly be a non-conformists you cannot worry about others, everything you do has to be for the best interest of yourself. “I shun father and mother and wife and brother, when my genius calls me.” (Emerson). Here Emerson is explaining his selfishness. When his genius, his utmost truth, calls him he turns away from the rest of the world without a care for anyone’s feelings, and marinates in his own personal truth. So ultimately, by definition, Emersons non-conformity is trusting your personal instincts and truth, without holding back, without second guessing, and without hesitating in regards to others.

Salvador Dali was born on May 11, 1904 in Figueres Spain. He was son to Salvador Dali Cusi, and Felipa Domenech Ferres. At a young age Dali spent quite a bit of time on the outskirts of Figueres, at an estate called Moli de la Torre owned by the Pichot family. This was a family of intellectuals and artists, and it was through them that Dali discovered impressionism. When Dali expressed to his family that he wanted to be a painter, his father told him that if he wanted this to be a profession, he had to go to Madrid and study at the Fine Arts School to become a teacher. Dali obliged. While attending, he was apart of several exhibitions and eventually made his first trip to Paris where he met and befriended Picasso. On his final venture to Paris he came into contact with a surrealist group. Although he found himself falling in line with most surrealistic events and ideas, he ultimately fell out of the lines and restrictions the group tried to chain him to.

When he found himself inevitably on the outs and not fitting in with this extremist group he stated “The difference between the surrealists and me is, I myself am surrealism.” By the 1930’s Dali discovered his own style, and while forever changing and evolving, is the style most known and admired by Dali, “a mixture of vanguard and tradition”. From thereon he had become integrated into surrealism and began his career as a painter. Dali was known for being an extremely eccentric character, always making outrageous statements and doing very abnormal things. There’s many studies on his choices and what they mean or how they happen, however I read one statement that really cleared things up for me. “To make it clear from early on that Salvador Dali was not afraid to wear his nonconformity, his iconoclasm on his sleeve. Its further testament to Dali being a true surrealist, a man who not only painted surrealistically, but lived surrealistically.”

Dali created many beautiful and moving masterpieces in his lifetime that to this day are still admired. However, there are a few that really threw people for a loop. An example; in 1962 dali created a piece called The Sacred Heart of Christ which contains the outline of what looks like Jesus with a halo surrounding him, the figure of a heart, and a crucifix in the middle. Now this painting doesn’t seem very eccentric or shocking… until you read what he wrote in the figures. “Sometimes I spit on the portrait of my mother for the fun of it.”. Why on earth would Dali write such a thing on a painting of jesus?! Some believe that he made off-the-wall pieces like this specifically to shock people, others believe that with a piece like this Dali is being his authentic truth. Is it possible that dali actually felt the things he was putting into his work?

Some may say that is crazy and that no one ever thinks like that. But, don’t we all have unexplainable emotions that we hide and are even scared of from time time? Dali just wasn’t afraid to show them. He has made statements like “I don’t do drugs. I am drugs.”, with no fear of the consequences of expressing his raw thoughts and no cares about how the things he did affected others. He says “Every morning upon awakening, I experience a supreme pleasure; that of being Salvador Dali, and I ask myself, wonderstruck, what prodigious thing will he do today, that Salvador Dali.”. He believes he is a genius and a prodigy, just as Emerson believed his thoughts were perfect and ingenious. In more ways than one, Dali exemplifies Emerson’s definition of non-conformity.

Non-conformity matters for a variety of reasons. Our world is ever changing and evolving, and that’s for the best. None of that evolving would happen if everything, and everybody, were the exact same. It takes someone standing out, being unordinary, being different, and standing up for what they believe in, without fear, to cause change. Without change in our world, there would be so many things misunderstood. The only way the people of the world are able to comprehend and try to understand or empathize with something that they are not used to, is if an individual is brave enough to do the dirty work. These individuals are most commonly non-conformists. These are the people who are unapologetically true, in a world that’s so untrue. They’re the people who aren’t afraid to shed light on deeper meanings in a world that’s so in the dark. If it were not for non-conformity, we would live in a world of even more arrogance than there still currently is. Non-conformity is important for inclusiveness, and acceptance. Non-conformity makes the world a better place.

It’s so important that the world had a person like Dali at the time it did. He gave so many people a new perspective and way of looking at life. He changed a traditional society that was set in its ways to be more understanding and accepting. Dali did not yearn for acceptance from others to feel accomplished in his life, and he relates to Emerson this way. “…I actually am, and do not need for my own assurance or the assurance of my fellows any second testimony. What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think.” (Emerson). If today’s generations had more individuals who were brave enough to openly reject conformity, there would be more acceptance to individuality. The world could use another Salvador Dali.