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  1. Whitman and Nietzsche define individual reality through the structure of self-interest. The former writer expressing a hedonistic tone among his own human experiences in New York while the latter conveys a clear message through human existence as a whole. The entire concept of Whitman’s Leave of Grass is to be as democratic as possible but also, create this democratic picture that Whitman and even the reader can be engaged in. America was going through a transitionary period when Whitman wrote these poems, he saw that individual’s in the country and even the country itself could elevate to the status of gods or giants, not literally but spiritually and mentally. For example, there’s a quote from the poem that guide’s this argument from early American transcendentalist writing into something that truly strengthens the concept of self-interest and early individualism. “Smile O voluptuous cool breathed earth! Earth of slumbering and liquid trees! Earth of departed sunset! Earth of the mountains misty-top! Earth of the vitreous pour of the full moon just tinged with blue! Earth of shine and dark mottling the tide of the river! Earth of the limpid gray of clouds brighter and clearer for my sake! Far-swooping elbowed earth! Rich apple-blossomed earth! Smile, for your lover, comes!” (p.36)
  2. This quote can be easily interpreted as Whitman praising the earth, but I think this can be directed towards every individual in America and on the planet. People should be happy about themselves, take pleasure in the things they do and the experiences they have. To achieve this the poem was written in a very democratic way so that when people read it they could be free from a perceived societal and state judgment. Free from judgment is a way a human being can go their own way this concept is enhanced when Whitman says, “I step up to say what we do is right and what we affirm is right and some is only the ore of right. (Pg.37)” What’s so interesting about this quote and the last one is that Whitman places them at the end of the page and this elevates the meanings of the dialogue presented. Both pieces correlating to that individuality and self-regard that is prevalent throughout the poem. What I think is so interesting about those quotes is that it’s almost like a casting call for individuals to rise for their own sake and become great. These great individuals will then guide democracy to evolve and transform into something new, creating a perpetual cycle of democracy that allows the individual to become great.
  3. I think the best thing Whitman has to offer when it comes individualism and self-interest is the fact that when the reader goes through his poems, unlike Plato or Nietzsche who directs a lot of lessons and meanings at the said reader, Whitman uplifts his audience. It’s this simple hedonism that helps the reader question their own individualism, it glorifies the reader but also the author, and this extends to other works by Whitman, Song of Myself, O Captain my Capitan, and I Sing the Body Electric respectfully. We even covered this in class even, Leaves of Grass and the meaning behind it. Simply, Pages of People speaks volumes before even reading the poem. Pages of People simply appears to mean that the people referred in the title and their pages are their own personal experiences and these experiences are then presented in a way that allows anyone who democratically engages in the words to be elated and recall their own empierces without the judgment they may have had before.
  4. To sum up what I’ve been saying Whitman’s experiences are closely intertwined with offering a look into early 19th century writing around the concept of self-interest. From writing about the earth and how it should embrace its beauty to affirming that individuals think they know what’s written for them, we can see that Leaves of Grass as a poem was ahead of its time spiritually and literary. This is what I think truly defined the transcendentalist movement, their avid push for individuals to live lives that they want, as the movement wanted a man, woman, child, and others to attain knowledge of themselves and embrace their experiences.
  5. Nietzsche, on the other hand, differs from Whitman in the sense that he really doesn’t see value in the human experience when talking about self-interest. In his book Dawn Nietzsche fully explores through a series of aphorisms why human beings are more complex than past philosophers might have alluded to such as Plato and Socrates, his book was meant to be the opposite of what they were saying, to respect those views but also challenge them. Not only does he challenge the schools of thought that were prevalent because of the famous Greek philosophers, Nietzsche challenged the idea of morality and how one rejects it. Morality isn’t as connected to self-interest as we might have thought it was according to him, and he explores this in a few key aphorisms throughout his book.
  6. In book one, Nietzsche gives an outline of the morality that individual’s face and how it is simply crafted by the society they are in whether it be through the state or even the church. His 9th aphorism titled Concept of the morality of mores is a very interesting piece surrounding this concept of human morality, he starts how in our advanced society we as humans are far from the customs of the past that are now weak, and that morality now more refined and made to be simple to understand for every individual, this for Nietzsche is actually a problem that should be talked about. What’s so interesting is that he doesn’t offer solutions to the problem like Socrates or even Plato might of, Nietzsche leaves it up to the reader to figure out this morality for himself and how it engages itself within our society, the best thing you could take away from this aphorism is the quote that says “The free human being is unaccustomed and immoral because, in all things, he wants to depend upon himself and not upon a tradition.” This is extremely important because what I think Nietzsche is stating here that humans are immoral in this age because of the morality imposed onto us through tradition and that anything else is evil or barbaric. Free being’s as Nietzsche states want to depend on themselves, they want to go their own way, but their tradition levied against them makes it, so they must stick within the framework of said custom. Traditions or customs can range from anything that society may put down, community, or what the church says, these things although are not completely mutually exclusive. Nietzsche goes onto talk about the judgement through the states will, what differs him from Whitman is that, Whitman wanted to be from the judgement that goes on in our everyday lives so that we may experience the world pleasurably and on our own terms. For Nietzsche that isn’t the case, experiencing the world through a broad definition of pleasure doesn’t really account for the reality a human may go through.
  7. The next aphorism that really stands out in Dawn is number 117. This one titled In Prison is one that takes a very clear stance. His arguments centers around people carving their own reality out of circumstance and how we perceive things is totally different from person to person, this is different from Whitman’s view of experience being the master of our reality rather it’s circumstance and up to the individual how he or she carves that reality out. At the very end Nietzsche says, “We hang within our web, we spiders, and no matter what we capture in it, we can capture nothing whatsoever other than what allows itself to be captured precisely in our web.” The insight behind this statement is master crafted to expand the reader’s understanding of individuality, we perceive existence as our own and we catch things within our web
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