pieruccm

I enjoyed reading both Children of Adam and Calamus but I do have to say that overall, I prefer Calamus and even further, I still like Song of Myself much better than these two texts.

From Calamus, I was particulary drawn to a couple of the sections. The first was “Are You the New Person Drawn to Me?”. 

“Are You the New Person Drawn to Me?”  – I find it quite amusing and realisitic that the veneer to which Whitman referes is quite exact to what a lot of people wear, especially when meeting new people. I wonder if there is something intrinsically position within each of our characters that forces us to put up some kind of guard around certain people? There can’t possibly be a moment when meeting someone new allows us to be completely open or honest…raw, even, as though we were with someone we’ve know our whole lives. Then again, is one ever really completely open with oneself? Are there not things that we shy away from within our own minds and spirits because of embarrassment, jealousy, or otherwise? These were some of the ideas that immediately popped into my head as I was reading. To be in complete contact with oneself is to be completely honest that there are masks that are worn not only with new people but around certain people, one mask; with other people, another. When Whitman asks this “new person” (or the reader) all of these questions, such as, “Do you think it so easy to have me become your lover?” or “Do you think I am trusty and faithful?” I think he is really pointing out the idea that first impressions are everything, whether good or bad. The first impression something has of another is probably what is going to remain in the back of their minds forever and sometimes it may be hard to redeem onself from a nasty image that s/he put in some else’s head. Then again, who wants to be too perky or nice because then it just seems that personality is one of a “pushover.” First impressions seem to be so tough because one must get it “just right” and it is what all will base their possible potential they see in you on this first impression. Surprisingly, in Song of Myself, Whitman seems to be strongly, if not completely, against the idea of conforming and then actually caring what people think of him. He seems to be in a world of his own, one in a million, and his attitude reeks of “I don’t give a damn.” So, I came to the conclusion that these questions are more for the new person to ponder, not so much that he actually cares what the answers are; just as long as the new person considers how superficial a first impression/mask/illusion can really be and how only skin-deep interest can lead nowhere if the honest personality behind the illusion is contradictory. In essence, I would think it’s fairly safe to assume that any kind of relationship would be started out with a lie, from both parties involved because neither one would be him or her self, yet I don’t know that there would ever be any kind of escape from it!