Walt Whitman and Henry David Thoreau
Much like Emerson, Whitman “sought to invent a literature and identity for nation whose mandarins still preached the high culture of Europe,” (Leland). Whitman instead acknowledges that the individual is what makes up society. In “I Hear America Singing,” the imagery of the melting pot emerges. “Each one singing what belongs to him or her or no one else,” yet all the voices combined create strong melodious songs. This idea of “America the melting pot” or “individual yet united” matches Leland's idea of the "hip." Society and nature, the new and the old, combine to form the "hip". When this occurs, new relationships form and one finds comfort. Read the poems and the assertions below to guide your interpretation.
Both Thoreau and Whitman extened Emerson's idea of the "new" and the lens of "hip." Whitman shares his insight through poetry, while Thoreau expresses it in his essays advocating for nonconformity and rebellion.
I Hear America Singing
by: Walt Whitman
I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear,
Those of mechanics, each one singing his as it should be blithe and strong,
The carpenter singing his as he measures his plank or beam, The mason singing his as he makes ready for work, or leaves off work,
The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat, the deckhand singing on the steamboat deck,
The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench, the hatter singing as he stands,
The wood-cutter’s song, the ploughboy’s on his way in the morning, or at noon intermission or at sundown,
The delicious singing of the mother, or of the young wife at work, or of the girl sewing or washing,
Each singing what belongs to him or her and to none else, The day what belongs to the day—at night the party of young fellows, robust, friendly,
Singing with open mouths their strong melodious songs.
To the States
by: Walt Whitman
To the States or any one of them, or any city of the States, Resist
much, obey little,
Once unquestioning obedience, once fully enslaved,
Once fully enslaved, no nation, state, city of this earth, ever
afterward resumes its liberty.
Thoreau writes Walden as an "instructional manual not how to live in nature, but how to live in town"(Robert B. Ray). Thoreau, like Emerson, claims to escape to nature deliberately, but as a result ends up in Concord jail. He asserts his freedom by losing his freedom, although he illustrates that nature gives on freedom not found in society. Thoreau is demonstrating the paradox of “nature puts no question and answers none,” (Walden). This translates into nature never obtaining the “real.” Although nature is simple and free, it does not let one use this freedom to alter society. Thoreau cannot rebel against the government without having been connected to tradition and society, and therefore the “real” or the "hip" is a balance of both. Read the exerpt from Thoreau's On the Duty of Civil Disobedience below along with the guiding assertions.
"Thus the state never intentionally confronts a man's sense, intellectual or moral, but only his body, his senses. It is not armed with superior with or honesty, but with superior physical strength. I was not born to be forced. I will breathe after my own fashion. Let us see who is the strongest. What force has a multitude? They only can force me who obey a higher law than I. They force me to become like themselves. I do not hear of men being forced to live this way or that by masses of men. What sort of life were that to live? When I meet a government which says to me, "Your money our your life," why should I be in haste to give it my money? It may be in a great strait, and not know what to do: I cannot help that. It must help itself; do as I do. It is not worth the while to snivel about it. I am not responsible for the successful working of the machinery of society. I am not the son of the engineer. I perceive that, when an acorn and a chestnut fall side by side, the one does not remain inert to make way for the other, but both obey their own laws, and spring and grow and flourish as best they can, till one, perchance, overshadows and destroys the other. If a plant cannot live according to nature, it dies; and so a man."
"It is not a man's duty, as a matter of course, to devote himself to the eradication of any, even to most enormous, wrong; he may still properly have other concerns to engage him; but it is his duty, at least, to wash his hands of it, and, if he gives it no thought longer, not to give it practically his support. If I devote myself to other pursuits and contemplations, I must first see, at least, that I do not pursue them sitting upon another man's shoulders. I must get off him first, that he may pursue his contemplations too. See what gross inconsistency is tolerated. I have heard some of my townsmen say, "I should like to have them order me out to help put down an insurrection of the slaves, or to march to Mexico — see if I would go"; and yet these very men have each, directly by their allegiance, and so indirectly, at least, by their money, furnished a substitute. The soldier is applauded who refuses to serve in an unjust war by those who do not refuse to sustain the unjust government which makes the war; is applauded by those whose own act and authority he disregards and sets at naught; as if the state were penitent to that degree that it hired one to scourge it while it sinned, but not to that degree that it left off sinning for a moment. Thus, under the name of Order and Civil Government, we are all made at last to pay homage to and support our own meanness. After the first blush of sin comes its indifference; and from immoral it becomes, as it were, unmoral, and not quite unnecessary to that life which we have made."
The the carol depends on the individual.
Each person is unique and therefore will sing their own individual song and American experience
"open mouths" represent's the individuals sense of self-pride. When all the individules come together, a harmony is created. Therefore, although society might be "conformist" it is composed of indivduals.
Once you are enslaved to "society" and the "old", one can never regain their freedom as an individual. Therefore, one must be rebellious and "obey little" to preserve their individualism.
Society forced the individual to conform. Thoreau, like Emerson, refutes this and fights for the individual.
Thoreau is introducing a new idea that a man is influenced by society for it shapes his senses. Meaning that the state will unintentionally bring a deformed conscience to the the individual.
Thoreau claims it is the not individual's duty to fight evil but to escape it. This apparent in Huck Finn, in which Huck escape the deformed conscience of society to the sound heart of nature.
Individuality is also found in physical nature. If a plant "conforms" it dies. thoraue says men die aswell because it is unatural to all be the same
Thoreau is advocating rebellion against society and government by saying that the individual should not fight the enemy but rebel against the one that created the enemy. The individual should not fight the deformed conscience but flee society that produced it.
Much like Emerson, Whitman “sought to invent a literature and identity for nation whose mandarins still preached the high culture of Europe,” (Leland). Whitman instead acknowledges that the individual is what makes up society. In “I Hear America Singing,” the imagery of the melting pot emerges. “Each one singing what belongs to him or her or no one else,” yet all the voices combined create strong melodious songs. This idea of “America the melting pot” or “individual yet united” matches Twains idea of the river. Society and nature, the new and the old, combine on the raft. When this occurs, new relationships form and one finds comfort.
To read more on Thoreau's rebellions against society, continue on to the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
