Entry 40: Whitman and Dickinson

Look at the quotations on p. 353 of your text. Describe what you think Whitman and Dickinson are implying. Are their messages similar or different? How? Which do you feel most closely represents your own attitude toward life?

• Whitman: Whitman's quote is trying implying that he is everywhere, with the common people of the country. We can think of the quote as implying this because during this period, most working class people (the majority of the population) need to wear boots, mainly because they are the most durable type of shoe produced at the time.
• Dickinson: Dickinson's quote is trying implying that the "world", or everybody else on planet Earth except for her, does not pay attention to her, as well as her poems and her views of the world. I believe that she wrote her many "letters", or poems, to convey to the ignorant world what she is feeling and what her point of view of the world is.
• Whitman and Dickinson are very similar because both of them are trying to express themselves to the world. However, they are still different because they express themselves in different ways. Whitman expresses himself in a more extroverted way while Dickinson expresses herself in a more introverted way (partly because of her withdrawing from the world).
• I believe that I am closer to Dickinson because even though I want to express myself to the world as well, I wish to do so in a more subtle and introverted way.