"(Americans) have the air of persons who never knew how it felt to stand in the presence of superiors" This sense of innate freedom and the perseption of having a part in government made Whitman antsy. He said that "America is a place where the president takes his hat off for them, not they for him". This is the popular belief of American democracy but in reality, even in Walt's time, the aristocracy and social class have more power on social, political and economic events of the lower classes. Walt Whitman considered this to be one of the most important characteristic that set America apart from its competing nations. If he were to realize his oppression would he still find America so beautiful and perfect.
The answer is yes because he is the optimist of the optimist and his love for the country would still be intact for the remainder of its history and even then his love will be present in its reminiscence.
Class of Kids actively listening to man talk about freedom while stuck in the prison of their desks
"To him complaint and jealousy and envy are buried and rotten in the earth... he saw them buried" Walt Whitman predicted the extinction of his beautiful species but also predicted the rearrival of the species. In his book Democratic Vistas, written in 1871,he said (I would not care to paraphrase it because it is beautifully written)that is though is deep love for the country that “I look for the counterbalance and offset of our materialistic and vulgar American Democracy, and for the spirituality thereof. Many will say it is a dream and will not follow my inferences: but I confidently expect a tie when there will be seen... threads of manly friendship, fond and loving, pure and sweet, strong and lifelong...refined self.” There is a hope that our handicapped society and capitalist ideals will reach its climax and we will restore the species of singing, bearded men.
Tupac sprung up from dust like a rose
"Who troubles himself about his ornaments or fluency is lost"  The Reservoir give too much thought to money and they all die grotesque deaths ‘The Americans... are glad to pass on anything to anyone’.The selflessness of Americans, discussed by Walt in Leaves of Grass, has either dissolved or has never existed. He saw an innate good-will tendency in the American species and failed to acknowledge otherwise. He managed to look past aristocracy, slavers, and other selfish cogs of society to subscribe to the idea that, in general, we are selfless and kind to all. It seems as though, in this dazzling century, that Americans are tippy-toeing on the apex of selfishness and personal profit than ever before in our four centuries of western existence and a million years of existence itself because that is what a modern American society demands of the individual.
Each American is like its own craft, obsessed with its own model and personal preservation. We weave through tree branches in an exhausting, lifelong effort to surpass our adversaries, lovers, family, friends, and co-workers. We have all pressed our names in a system of hierarchy and we are all delighted by it. In this capitalist American society, it is impossible to devote yourself otherwise and to do so would be a permanent seal to nakedness and vulnerability. To be simple and moderate is to be untouchable. The height of American picturesque happiness is unattainable because the American citizens are always reaching for something higher and more unattainable.
The contrast between the vehicle that is modern America and the Wagon-life of Walt may not be unfathomable but are drastic. There were still bearded men living Gnostically, axe-handedly, self-sustainingly whistling folk to the trees in the woods and planting their cabins in its hearth.
“The Americans of all nations at any time upon the earth have probably the fullest poetical nature... (they) themselves are essentially the greatest poem.”
This is how Walt opens up the second paragraph of his Leaves of Grass poems. He goes on to say that the genius and poetic nature of America is not figureheads and not the things people would recall as its defining characteristics but that it is the common people. The people of America had a moderate attitude towards most things and a limp, careless gait while walking down streets.Things like freedom and novelty were just accepted as as a trait in the individual and the power of these carefree, common people is more powerful than senators or priests. This was Walt’s manifest dream that was soon to be destructed.
The first point Walt makes is that Americans emanate a sort of carefree attitude and a beautiful kind of laziness: "The picturesque looseness of their carriages." In a way that still exists, but in a different kind of way. The American species acknowledged that they were lazy creatures and became enveloped in lazy ordeals such as video games, artificial suns (lightboxes) and television. With the evolution of the species, laziness evolved into something Walt would've disapproved off and a laziness that lacks all beauty.
Americans, as Whitman puts it in his opening paragraph, are content and live in accordance with the 'old, simple ways of life'. He is also extremely intrigued by the way Americans integrated the old ways with the new ways of life in a perfect recipe. And that observation is also as true today as ever before in the government. Our laws, ideals, religions all stem off of archaic ideals and we are now haunted with a thing called Conservativism, where people believe in morals and norms that no longer line up in the culture and state of the modern world.
It is my belief that Walt grayed faster than the typical human, or maybe even the modern day stock traders that have a hard time juggling all of the day’s chaos, balding at a premature age. Railroads were drilling tunnels though his forests, and towns and cities were being erected in mindless balk. Western expansion and industrialization were both strangling the environment that he praised as being beautiful and necessary; while Indian Relocation and Civil War served as a beautiful example of the American Coldness. A hard burden to bare, but he carried the burden with an indescribable optimism that was pushed forward in all he did, the poetry that he wrote.
JIM JIM
 The most popular motif in Franny and Zooey is Ego. It is Franny’s battle with ego that sends her into the crippling depression she and her family are combating throughout the book. Franny sees that the professors at her college to totally be drown by their egos and finds it absolutely irksome. She also notices that her boyfriend Lane would rather be bathed in his ego than to listen and pay attention to Franny. The ego in Lane is aimed at looking like a honcho and shooting down Franny’s ideals that, to him, seem foolish and elementary.
But Franny also has an ego herself. It is because of her ego that she is shooting down her professors and higher education, why she does not listen to her brother and her mother, and why she is willing to conduct such an extreme religious journey. Religion, as argued in the book, is all about believing that your views are correct and by pursuing a religious life you are surrendering to ego.
Zooey, nearing the end of the book, scolds Franny’s attack on the ego saying that it is wrong not to act on your ego or to ignore it and that without ego there is only hobby. He says that ego is the breeder of new ideas. If Einstein didn’t have an ego he would never have pursued his physics career and would have instead worked a more modest career at McDonalds or whatever chain stores were popular in those days. Ego is a big part of destiny and only believe they are meant to accomplish something if they have an ego. Zooey then draws the border between hobby and ego. He says that hobby is fun and mediocre and that ego is for those who want to make a difference.
The protagonist’s last name in Franny and Zooey is Glass. While Glass may just coincidentally be the last name of these characters, this is literature and it is my obligation to make a theory for everything; I have crafted up a theory for Glass.
Glass in Franny and Zooey is not only just a name but also is a motif throughout the whole book. It is first referenced when describing the characteristics of the living room. The glass windows are described as lighting up the room but also shedding a light on the stains on the carpets and walls and all the clutter on in the shelves. Perhaps Salinger is alluding that this story is not only for seeing the brightness in the characters but also seeing the stains and flaws in personality; the ugliness that is encrypted inside all the members of the glass family.
Secondly, Glass is referenced during the argument between Franny and Zooey about the Jesus Prayer. Zooey is standing at the window, looking out at a girl with her dog. Salinger narrates the girl with her dog the same way he had been narrating the Glasses throughout the novel. The transparency of the glass of the window is the same kind of transparency that Salinger has with the Glass family.
The Theory of Bad Faith and what happens when we desert our temptation to act in bad faith serves as an undertone throughout the whole book. The phrase ‘Bad Faith’ and its meaning were coined by the existential philosopher Sartre in 1943 to describe an odd characteristic of human behavior. Bad Faith happens when someone believes that an outside force impedes their choices, generally wrong choices, and freedom when really their freedom is always in their hands. Sartre believed that, without exception, humans always have freedom to act by their will; chained or unchained, knowingly or unknowingly.
Though the whole Glass family is a victim of acting in bad faith, Zooey in particular is the most affected by the theory. Zooey seems to have something to blame for everything he finds misfortunate or ridiculous. Firstly, he feels that the family’s misfortune is caused by bad karma from previous carnations: “…the family must have piled up one helluva lot of bad karma”. Zooey also blames his brothers and his spiritual upbringing for, what he sees as, his personality flaws instead of taking responsibility for his behavior and his choices. This is acting in bad faith and there are many examples of the Glasses surrendering to bad faith.
Lane at the beginning of the novel uses bad faith in order to fit into a curtain complex or view he has of himself. He is truly excited to see Franny but is unwilling to show her how he feels because of his ego (which I will describe in the next Book blog as a motif.)
The practice of bad faith is an important part of carrying a polite conversation though. Lying in order to make people feel better and to assimilate into a social group is a common practice among chief communicators. At the beginning of the story, Franny neglects the practice of bad faith when talking to her partner, Lane. By telling the utmost truth and acting on her will, she is in turn deeply offending Lane and causing strife among her social group.
"O snail
Climb Mount Fuji
But slowly, Slowly!"
-Issa
When Zooey enters Seymour and Buddy's room to call Franney and pull her from her funk, Zooey reads a board full of philosophical and literary allusions that had in someway inspired either Seymour and Buddy back when they lived in the Glass House. One of the quotes was the one above. It inspired me not only because it is sort of witty but also because it didn't seem to follow the pattern for composing Haiku I had learned in Elementary School. So I shuffled though series of books of Japanese Haiku and found that they did not follow a pattern at all. And so began the search to understand why.
I found firstly that it was partly because of the translation from japanese to english. The structure of the poem had been skewed in the transformation to english.
Secondly, I found that because of the differences in languages the Japanese style of Haiku is composed slightly different from English Haiku. Japanese Haiku still follows that 5-7-5 pattern that everyone is in love with but instead of the numbers representing syllables, they represent letter sounds. So, for example, the word 'Mount' in English Haiku would count for one syllable while 'mount' in Japanese Haiku is counted for three letter sounds.
Reading Blog 10- The Final but not finale.
Pg 104-105
Was I asleep while the others suffered? Am I sleeping now? Tomorrow when I wake, or think I do, what shall I say of today? That with Estragon my friend, at this place, until the fall of night, I waited for Godot? That Pozzo passed, with his carrier, and that he spoke to us? Probably. But in all that what truth will there be? (Talking about the sleeping Estragon) He’ll know nothing. He’ll tell me about the blows he received and I’ll give him a carrot. Astride of a grave and a difficult birth. Down in the hole, lingeringly, the grave digger puts on the forceps. We have time to grow old. The air is full of our cries. But habit is a great deadener. At me too someone is looking, of me too someone is saying, He is sleeping, he knows nothing, let him sleep on. I can’t go on!
A somewhat of a continuation of last learning log but a few pages ahead, the speech holds a similar meaning. Vladimir is obviously irritated at his partner who keeps falling in and out of sleep. Be in the condition of utter clueless ness and physiological destitution, Estragon is not able to relieve him of his agony. He wonders if he is the same way when everyone else is in this state, sleeping and useless.
He goes on to say that sure he is living and doing things daily, but that his actions are no different than the day before, therefore he didn’t do much of anything. He says the most cliché thing in the most beautiful way: Astride of a grave and a difficult birth, the gravedigger puts on the forceps. He is saying we are born only to die.
He brings back the topic of distraction from death and all the terrible thoughts using habit then says that he is just as clueless as everyone else, even the sleeping Estragon.
Reading Blog 9- Waiting for Godot pg. 91
The last two remaining book blog’s are both about Vladimir’s rants, as I call them. Vladimir unleashes his agony and confusion two times in the book, both nearing its end. The first one is unleashed when Pozzo is lying blindly on the ground screaming for help, and Vladimir is assessing how they are to help Pozzo and why exactly they are there in that spot.
All I know is that the hours are long, under these conditions, and constrain us to beguile them with proceedings which-how shall I say- which may at first sight seem reasonable, until they become a habit. You may say it is to prevent our reason from foundering. No doubt. But has it not long been straying in the night without end of the abyssal depths? That’s what I sometimes wonder. You follow my reasoning?
We are all born mad. Some remain so.
Vladimir first says that waiting and all the time they have wasted has spiraled them into an unbeneficial series of habits that carry on day to day. These habits are an attempt to enchant the moments and make them more livable. He goes on to say that the habits are to distract you to conquering you final goal, which in his case is meeting Godot. Probably if he were to stop doing these habits he would stop waiting for Godot. I believe, though unsure, that what Vladimir is saying at the end is that he wonders why he continues to wait these long hours doing the same thing day after day if it doesn’t make him happy and why, after realizing he is not happy, does he not stop. Estragon replies that we are all born mad. Some remain so and that to me meant that some people can change and improve themselves while some people can’t; they happen to be those people.
This book is a bit depressing to me.
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