Last week, in class we talked about how many people such as Charles Dickens and Philip Hone critically analyzed New York City during the 19th century. Many people that analyzed New York were people who haven’t spent much of their time here to fully understand New York and all its conditions.
There were many interesting ideas discussed in class. One of them was the reason why Charles Dickens during his trip to New York would depict the city in such a foul way. In Dickens’ work, “America notes for General Circulation,” Dickens describes humans as pigs because he felt that during his trip people were highly self-contained without care for anyone else. During class, we also separated the critics that commented on 19th century New York in two categories, the insiders and outsiders. Those who were classified as the insiders are those such as Philip Hone who actually lived and breathed the city air. The outsiders, on the other hand, looked at the city with a different perspective. Charles Dickens is an example of an outsider who looked at the city and searched for what he thought was the true New York beyond the fancy lights.
Depending on where you live and the way you observe things, will determine the response you will have to a new environment. The example used before about Charles Dickens was a perfect example. Dickens, originally from England, looked at the city totally different from the way Walt Whitman did, because Whitman lived in the state longer than Dickens had been there. Although he has his own opinion on the city itself, Dickens do not have the right to make generalizations without living in that place and experiencing the good and bad of it. Charles Dickens figured that the way to find the true New York was to dig deep and visit the slums. There he saw how the poor and homeless were treated and further made assumptions about the city of New York as a self-centered one. He wouldn’t have known that beyond the slums and the bright city lights there dwells people who in fact give, donate, and help out those in need. Although there may be people who are less interested in the labor it takes to provide for the poor, there are many more that enjoy and live to assist the needy in any way possible.
Personally, after I read Charles Dickens’ thoughts about his journey to New York, I got offended because he made an acute generalization about the city without really experiencing the good things it has to offer. Dickens criticized New York in his book for being selfish and uncivilized but yet still calls them “a great republican.” (From American Notes for General Circulation) He called the people of New York pigs who are worried about their own. America for what he saw was dirty. New York, just like any other city has its good and bad, but to make generalizations without living here isn’t a good way to get acquainted with a city such as New York. New York is a fast-paced city so I could understand that there aren’t as many people to take care of the poor as there should be. But classifying New York by the number of poor people in the city isn’t an effective way to describe New York.
hope everyone’s okay. i was just checking because i haven’t been on here in a minute. What’s new?? How are the searches for Whitman coming along?
it feels like i haven’t been on here in forever….
In the last lecture, we had some great ideas on how to tackle understanding literary texts. After that class I began to think about some of the questions we asked and wondered what their answers would entail. The questions we thought of during our class discussion helped us to further analyze Walt Whitman’s character and personality.
One of the things that strike me the most was his level of compassion for the runaway slave. In his poem “Song of Myself,” in Walt Whitman’s 1855 edition of “Leaves of Grass” he writes, “The runaway slave came to my house and stopped outside, I heard his motions crackling the twigs of the woodpile, through the swung half-door of the kitchen I saw him limpsey and weak, and went where he sat on a log, and led him in and assured him, and brought water and filled a tub for his sweated body and bruised feet, and gave him a room that entered from my own, and gave him some coarse clean clothes…” From this passage here we can ask many questions about both the hospitality of Walt Whitman and the nature of the “runaway slave.” This passage in his poem makes me think first of why would Walt Whitman not proceed to do what some of the other folks regarding runaway slaves during this time of 1855, where there were still acts of segregation and slavery taking place. For example, sometimes if people saw that a runaway slave had approached their doorstep, the mean slave masters and hunters would shoot them down, beat them, torture them, hang them, or even worst send them back to where they came from. But yet, there were even some that, like Walt Whitman, had compassion for people and desired to help them in anyway possible, whether it is making them food, giving directions, clothes or a place to sleep at night.
As we, the students in class began to interpret Walt Whitman’s poem, we looked at it in a couple ways. We first observed the text in a biographical and historical context. Now tackling the biographical context we asked questions based on the passage above. Some of these questions included what type of exposure did Whitman have to slavery? What experience did he have in nursing? Did Walt Whitman ever come in contact with a runaway slave before? I began to wonder about these same questions and even thought of some on my own, such as how did the runaway slave distinguish Walt Whitman’s house as a safeguard and not one of an evil slave master? What events lead up to Walt Whitman becoming so compassionate and hospitable to foreign people, especially during a time where it was unlikely to care for a runaway slave? These are some of the question, based on this passage that interested me and may want to further interpret and discuss.
This class was really helpful because it made us not only think more deeply about the name Walt Whitman, but his character, personality, background, past, and sexuality and the type of influences he had on people as well as what influenced some of the decisions he made. Interpreting the literary text made us also think outside the box of his family or the things that he was known for and to try to correctly analyze the man Walt Whitman.
So far I think the class is a challenging one, but good because its not what I am used to. I am used to the ordinary tests, quizzes, and exams every so often, but I think this class has changed the whole traditional meaning of an English 1275 class, for the better.
Walt Whitman is an interesting poet. He must have been, because of of all the constant reviews, expressed thoughts, and criticism he endured. although Whitman lived a life where great responsibilities and expectations were forced upon him, he selfishly thought of his family, instead of himself first. Its striking how people demanded so much from him, while growing up in a dysfunctional family. the things he would recapture from his memory through poetry are indescribable. Most of the ideas, imagery, and imagination behind his poem “Song of Myself,” I believe were ones that possibliy went on throughout his childhood or even lifetime.
I enjoyed working on the frontispiece assignment. It was creative to have an image of ourselves on the blogs as well as our favorite lines from the poem “Song of Myself.” I picked a picture that I thought related to things that live on forever. For example I chose a picture of me and the background showing a body of water and the sky. I didn’t realize the connection until one of the bloggers from the other schools told me about it. The line that was most important and connected most with my frontispiece image is “eternity lies in bottomless reservoirs…its buckets are rising forever and ever.” These lines really spoke to me because I often find myself wondering about eternity. I see that Walt Whitman often enjoyed exploring what eternity may include.
Another one of my favorite lines in Walt Whitman’s poem involved him portraying himself as a “hounded slave.” I think that the level of detail in those lines was created as a method to connect it to what he experienced throughout his life. I believe that he preferred these lines because he had to actually become a slave within his family. I think that the roles that he had to play in his family as the caretaker for his siblings who were mostly sick with diseases and infirmities, provider for the household, and help his father at his job. Walt Whitman’s childhood life wasn’t one that most of us would be eager to have but he endured. Whitman’s imagination and ability to be creative and construct these lines intensifies his ability to think far beyond ordinary poets.
Walt Whitman incorporated the lines “I am an acme of things accomplished and I an encloser of things to be.” I think that these lines signify the way he portrays himself. I think as he described himself as the climax of things achieved and the surrounding of things to be, he meant that this was not the last of him that his audience will see. He claimed that no matter what people may perceive of him that he will not under any circumstances fall, but always endure the challenges that are set before him. I think that was what he did when he wrote all of those positive comments about him while at the same time people were critiquing him. I admire Walt Whitman’s energy and ability to continue to do what he does best although there were many in his audience that were repulsed by his creative and unique style of writing.
As most of us probably know, we are living in a country that was built on slavery. Many people not just American Americas have become victimized to this eager attempt to control the minorities. The Indians and Mexicans are just two examples. The creation of these divisions further tore apart the United States, causing a northern collapse in unity. Now, because of the division caused by some, we now live in a semi-segregated world. We are as a whole less likely to intervene in confrontations concerning another race besides our own, although at different times, all of us, as a race went through a type of slavery that segregated us from the rest of the world.
Walt Whitman actually describes himself as “the hounded slave” going through the motions of what it must have felt like to become a slave. His poem, “Song of Myself,” is filled with various images that I believe Whitman either has experienced or thought of during his many edited versions. The level of imagery in this passage further intensifies his ability to think far beyond the ordinary. I think that this particular passage can have something to do with his struggles throughout his life. For example, Whitman says, “they taunt my dizzy ears….they beat me violently over the head with their whip-stocks. Agonies are one of my changes of garments.” I think that can infer the various roles he had to play in his family. His family background isn’t one that we would want to experience because he had to become a father to his younger siblings and provide for the household at the same time had to quit school in order to do this. Neither his mother nor father was highly educated so he had to make ends meet the best way he knew how. I could imagine that the various roles he had to play were difficult and stressful. On top of that to have people criticizing you for your beliefs, sexuality and personality had to have been torture. Although Whitman lived a life that seemed out of the ordinary, he endured.
The clock indicates the moment….but what does eternity indicate?
Eternity lies in bottomless reservoirs….its buckets are rising forever and ever
They pour and they pour and they exhale away.
I am amazed at how well Whitman can describe something so detailed. Its like his brain explores far beyond the natural mind. He has a way with words, that can only be understood with great enthusiasm and a great big dictionary. I am interested in learning about Walt Whitman, the man in the mirror, behind the ideas, enclosed in his innermost feelings and thoughts, and how he comes up with his creativity and inspirations.
He’s brilliant
Danique
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