another look at "Democratic Vistas"

Today I decided to get started on our final paper for the semester. I looked at what we would be graded on and started thinking back on the semester. As I began to decide what kinds of points I wanted to include in my paper I made a bit of a To do list. The first item on the list was to re-read "Democratic Vistas" by Walt Whitman. I pulled out the article, a pen and a highlighter to get started and kind of groaned. I remember reading this the first time at the beginning of the semester and really struggling to get through it and make any sense of it.

Thank goodness this article is makes much more sense and is much more rewarding to read after we've spent a whole semester discussing the ideas Whitman presents in his article. I could see the ideas of de Tocqueville screaming at us through the words of Whitman. Whitman talks an aweful lot about the importance of the past and how the past shapes the future of the present and the future. I was really excited to find this in "Democratic Vistas" because just before I started reading it I made a brief outline of what I want my paper to look like. I found some really great evidence in Whitman that I can and will definitely be using in the final product.

I'm really glad I reread this article because I can see not only de Tocqueville's ideas gushing out, but also the ideas of Bellah and Putnam as well. I have so many ideas and ways to structure my argument in my paper. I think this was a really great way for me to get this project started and I'm looking forward to getting to a few more of the other items on that To do list. I like the results I have so far and I'm eager for more.

Another idea I got really excited about in this second reading was the importance Whitman placed on the art and literature of the young America. He claimed it was vital for the young nation to create it's own school of thought, art and science. In the beginning of the semester I wouldn't have understood this, given it a second thought or remembered it at all. But after spending the last 17 weeks in my history class (Courtly Love in the Middle Ages) I totally get what he was saying. Literature and art is a wonderful way to examine what the ideas, practices, attitudes and beliefs of a certain period. I think what Whitman was saying was that if America wanted to be understood in the future, the nation needed to leave something behind for future generations to look back on and interpret. We did a lot of interpreting of art both this semester and last. At the time a lot of us said "why are we reading poetry?" or "why did we spend the day looking at art?" But now I get it. Art and literature is a lens for us to use to look into the past and to try to make sense of it.