Analyzing Walt Whitman's 'Song To Myself'

1. Walt Whitman’s role as the equalizer in his poetry is to level the hierarchies of society and help to place everyone and thing on the same playing field. He uses parataxis and repetition to emphasize his democratic beliefs that no race or sex is better than the other because we are all a part of the same universe. In Song to Myself section 24, Whitman’s role as an equalizer is very clear. “Walt Whitman, an American, one of the roughs, a kosmos…” (line 499). In this line, Whitman moves his description of himself from the micro to the macro. He shows how one man is a part of many things larger than himself. Also, Whitman uses repetition in section 24. Since he wrote in free verse, repetition gave his writing a sense of balance and rhythm. …show more content…
By the end of the novel, the scarlet letter had, indeed, “not done it’s office” (145). The original function of the letter was to brand Hester with her sin of being an adulteress. The embroidered letter on her bosom was placed there by the government in order to shame and ostracize Hester from society, as a scare tactic to keep the other members of the community in line, and to hopefully bring out the man with whom Hester committed her sin. However, the letter “A” becomes re-signified within the story. Instead of limiting her, the scarlet letter allowed Hester to become independent and a progressive thinker. “…The whole system of society is be torn down, and built anew… before women can be allowed to assume what seems a fair and suitable position” (145). This view on women and society in chapter 13 certainly places Hester ahead of her time and this can be credited to the fact that she was not in the clutches of the puritan lifestyle. Even the other members of the society came to think of Hester as a strong woman. “… Many people refused to interpret the scarlet A by its original signification. They said it meant Able… (141) and indeed, Hester was. The last function, to bring out the man Hester committed adultery with, also failed. Not until the very end of the novel does Dimmesdale come forward and even after his death, the town upholds his reputation as pure and noble. The scarlet letter was supposed to transform Hester, but instead she reformed it and the letter did not …show more content…
Emersonian transcendentalism focuses heavily upon being self-reliant and individualism. It also touches upon leveling human-beings so that all people can have access to freedom and knowledge, which is why many transcendentalists were involved in social reform movements. With this is mind, one can argue that Fredrick Douglass was influenced by transcendentalism. Douglass writes: “It was time I found out what the word [abolitionist] meant” (25). This act of becoming literate was his first step in becoming his independent self. Knowing how to read allowed him to see the difference between his life in slavery and the world of freedom that was just beyond his reach. This eventually gives Douglass the means to rebel. Later in the novel he writes: “The battle with Mr. Covey was the turning point in my career as a slave. It rekindled the few expiring embers of freedom, and revived within me a sense of my own manhood” (43). Douglass’ access to knowledge (to read and to write) eventually led to his access to freedom. He goes on to teach other African-American’s to read in his Sabbath school giving them access to knowledge as well. In the final chapters, Fredrick Douglass adopts a work ethic that allows him to economic freedom and independence he needs to get to New York to start his new self-reliant life as his own master. Knowing all this, Douglass can be seen as a transcendentalist because believes in individualism and the power of knowledge. He then joins the lecture circuit to

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