Whitman today

A lot of our posts have been analyzing how the ideas of Whitman or the American Romantics in general are viewed in our culture. The society that Whitman lived in considered his work shocking and improper, but in our society we admire originality and we are most interested in the things that shock us. If Leaves of Grass were published today how would our reactions be different from those of the people in Whitman's time, and how have our attitudes towards his ideas changed? What do you consider the most shocking, weird, or interesting theme that Whitman's style embodies?

Equality

In 'Song of Myself' Whitman talks about the idea of what we normally think of opposites. He basically dismisses the idea of opposites and says that we are all the same. Does this hold any truth, and how does it apply today?

Modern Day Romanticism

Both American and British romantics talked about their love of nature, the idea of anti-consumerism, desire to escape from conformity and a love of childhood and innocence. Today, we are constantly bombarded with advertisements to buy products that make us more beautiful and more connected through technology. there is a desire and glamorization of growing up, turning 18 and being an adult. In a culture like this, do you think there are any more true romantics?

Whitman can be seen as self centered (quote from Emerson) with his writing as well as self less, he is said to be the poet of the common people. Based on what we have read and talked about in class do you think Whitman is more self centered or self less?

Self Reliance

In Emerson's, "Self- Reliance" he talks about how we should not care about slavery because it does not directly involve us. Then he says that we should not give to the poor becausedo not belong to them. Also he mentions how even the smallest ideas can be great ideas and how one should think for himself. Does our society think these ideas today??

Hester Prynne & Arthur Dimmesdale

Even though both Hester and Mr.Dimmesdale lived their lives trying to repent for their sin and both even admitted to it publicly, they still were not left to be happy or together in the afterlife. They remained separated as we find out when the position of their graves are described. Why do you think this happens? Are they just used to reiterate the values of the Puritans and their ideas of predestination, or is it used to effect the reader and our emotions? What do you think?

Hester & The Scarlet Letter

So, we all know that Hester was forced to confess her sin due to her visual pregnant stomach and obvious birth of Pearl. What if Hester did not have those visual representations? Would she have confessed to her adultery? How would this change the book? Would this change the way we thought of Hester as a person & how she compares to Dimmesdale?