America Based on Ideas

“Walt Whitman, an American, one of the roughs, a kosmos, disorderly, fleshly, and sensual, no sentimentalist, no stander above men or women or apart from them, no more modest than immodest” (Song of Myself). He has been one of the most criticized writers in nineteenth century. Walt Whitman was born in 1819 with the mind of an adventurist. His ideas have been most incorporated in history and in modern day America.

Whitman’s point of view is the idea of diversity amongst people and how it unites certain people together. In most of his poems, he brings the topic of equality, individuality, community, and unity frequently. In his poem “Leaves of Grass”, he incorporates the USA and how it is made up of many people and nationalities. The broad spectrum of the United States is what included every type of person into that poem. It's what makes us better and more experienced human beings. From his poem, he is saying that it doesn’t matter whether you’re a prostitute or the bride, the President or a drunk man at a bar – we are still all the same at a different level. What makes it even more interesting is that these types of people are contrasts to each other. A bride who has found someone to be happy with and start a family is the total opposite of a drugged woman on the street making money off of her body. The President, who is highly educated and has the power of the country, is a different standard then a drunken man at a bar. He did this on purpose to show that the USA is made up of different kinds of people

It’s his perspective that made him such a memorable author.

Walt Whitman doesn’t only write about being unique and accepting another’s differences, he actually writes in his own style of writing. It doesn’t have to rhyme, make sense to all the critics there were out there, or have the same outline as other writers. He does this to prove his point and not ‘flow with the crowd’. It’s a sense of rebelling against tradition, taking risks, and challenging conventions. No wonder that some people might find it offensive if it’s his opinion about not going with the original framework.

His idea was to be a unique individual with your own sense of mind. Something that is actually in contrast with that is today’s Presidential election. Instead of having your own say, every American has to vote for the new President while searching for the same things. Whether it be lower taxes, more jobs, less school hours, or more pay. It’s something that Whitman himself would be mad at about what’s happening today.