Journal #33 - Whitman

Throughout the Whitman poems that we have read, he has focusedon the Self and what the Self is. In the language of the self, we read that Whitman is writing about the self as well. According to this article, Whitman's writting comes off as egotistical and very self absorbed. I think that this is a common way to portray the self because that is how many poeple are in this world. Whitman writes this way though because he is discovering himself. The reason that he is coming off as egotistical and self centered is because he is simply writing about himself. I do not even think there is a way for him to not sound self centered unless he changed the subject to someone other than himself. The author of this article talks about some people who say that Whitman is an example of this egotistic problem. They say that this represents a problem that many poeple have. I had recently thought of this in one of our reflections, I ahd said that Whitman had given a good example of what not to be like. I think this is also what the people in the article are saying. I think this because they talk about how Whitman was in all ways a good person, but he discovered this side of him through his poems. I think that these people have a very good point and that they have described Whitman's purpose for finding the self very well. Whitman did a great job of finding the self, but what he ahd found was something that was not very good. I think that once Whitman had discovered the true self, which was not very ideal, he had began to regret what he had done. But he had done what needed to be done, and by finding out what the self means he gave way to the inspiration of other people. He inspired people to be the best they can be by both being like his character as well as contrasting from his character.