Witty Whitman
Witty Whitman
Step 1:
Whitman has cursive handwriting that, I wouldn't say, is very neat. His sentences are hard to make out, but some of the words are legible. Most of these words are in first and second person, never (from what I can tell) stating a name or a date of any kind. This could mean that his letters are very personable and that he talks to the person directly. Talking to whomever he is talking to in first and second person shows that Whitman cares about the people he is associated with, and cares about other opinions. Whitman also has many drawings or sketches of himself (???) in many different forms and different outfits. This could be that he has many different sides to himself and he doesn't just like to be seen as "one-sided". He is pictured in a normal outfit with his seemingly regular face, while there is another picture of him as a skeleton and a sword through his heart (deep). Lastly, the overall appearance of the book stood out to me. It is worn down and literally (not figuratively) ripping at the seems, meaning that Whitman used his journal A LOT. He wrote down his thoughts (probably taking the journal everywhere he went) and the fictional conversation between Abraham Lincoln (DA MAN) and himself.
Step 2:
After looking at the notes section, some of my observations were correct (yay I can read sloppy handwriting!!!!). I talked about how Whitman presumably carried the notebook wherever he endeavored, and with that, he wrote down names and addresses (maybe things that he came across in the real world and had to quickly write down for future reference). He also was fascinated with Abraham Lincoln (DA MAN), watching him and examining him as he rode past, again emphasizing the fact that Whitman took the book everywhere. As shown in the notes, Whitman enjoyed writing and the different forms of writing including brochures and pamphlets. Something I didn't see when reading the journal is his thoughts on religion. It spans across a lot of his journal, and talks about how God is many different things (kind of like what I said about Whitman himself). God is both Christ and Satan, a representation of the time period that he wrote in his journals (Civil War era). Whitman's sketches may not have been his own (wow), but still are of Whitman himself. They slowly become caricatures as the sketches progress, but aren't all that different, they just show different forms of Whitman (nailed it!!!). Overall, he admired Lincoln and his views upon slavery and the war, which is shown through his theoretical dialogues with the one he admired so much.
Firstly, I would like to say Abraham Lincoln is DA MAN. Secondly, I agree that Whitman's notebook was really worn down and his writing wasn't the greatest. Whitman was an adventurous, outgoing, free man and his notebook was like a symbol for that. He went on a lot of journeys with it (which I would have loved to tag along on:( ). Yet, one thing seemed to stay a relevant and occurring theme, was religion. After reading part two I think this was definitely something that he felt passionate about and wanted to share with the world. Now addressing DA MAN. My man Abe was such an astounding influence in Whitman's life, I feel like a lot of the viewpoints he had came from Abe's. I think your last sentence in part two was a good summary of him and some of Whitman's writing. Overall, great analysis hun and Whitman is just...wow.
ReplyDeleteHEY! One thing I really like that you mentioned is how you think that the drawings are Whitman himself and they all look a little bit differently because he wanted to show the different sides to himself. I mentioned the drawings in my post and described how I thought they were ordinary people he used as characters in his poems. However, I like your thought a lot more because there are many poems I've read in Leaves Of Grass that illustrate Whitman's thoughts on how he hoped his readers view him or he questions what future poets might think of him. Additionally, I really like how you discussed how the article brought up a lot about religion and Abraham Lincoln.
ReplyDeleteShalom! I tried reading his journal and gave up so props to you. I thought it was cool how you mentioned that he only used first and second person, to me that makes it seem like he was talking directly to the journal as a way to talk directly to the universe as a whole (Boom, Deep). It was also interesting how he took the notebook everywhere and was obsessed with Abraham Lincoln. It reminds me of how you take your phone everywhere and are obsessed with Abraham Lincoln. Also, Whitman's thought of how God was both Christ and Satan was a hot new way to look at things. See you in film my dude.
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