Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman Essay -- Walt Whitman on Democracy

Walt Whitman is possibly one of the outdo examples of an artist who drew no distinctions between art and enculturation. To Whitman art is culture, and culture is history. His role as an artist essential then be as such manifesting himself as a representative of the America masses, or express himself as America personified. He saw democracy as an inseparable place of Americaness. However, the America he lived in was desperately fractured amongst differing factions with different opinions on the explanation of democracy. Regardless, Whitman did not see the problems of his day as a roundabout versus bottom, bottom versus top issue (no entendre intended). But, rather, an issue that exploded out of all(prenominal) orifice of American life.Ernesto Guevara spoke of love and conflictLet me say, with the take a chance of appearing ridiculous, that the true revolutionary is guided by strong feelings of love. It is unsufferable to think of an authentic revolutionary without this qualit yOur vanguard revolutionaries must view their love for the people, for the most hallowed causes, and make it one and indivisibleThey must struggle every day so that their love of living humankind is transformed into concrete deeds, into acts that will serve as an example as a mobilizing factor. (Minogue, 33).Ezra Greenspan explains that most contemporary criticism falls into one of cardinal camps that be separated by two major historical events. He explains that there is a Cold war generation who tended to focus on what they perceived to be the unrestrained freedom of the self (143) and that there is the post-Vietnam War generation who argue that Whitmans attempts to celebrate modern freedom are compromised and complicated by the immersion of author, subject and t... ... on the battlefield, however, they return to the sodding(a) mother in which they again convene and become an even more(prenominal) physical manifestation of a collective as they combine into the geographics o f America in unseen essence and odor of surface and grass, centuries therefrom (396).Works CitedGreenspan, Ezra, and Walt Whitman. Walt Whitmans Song of Myself A Sourcebook and Critical Edition. New York u.a. Routledge, 2005. writeMinogue, Kenneth. Che Guevara. The New Left. New York Library, 1971. 17-48. Print.Pascal, Richard. Walt Whitman and Woody Guthrie American Prophet-Singers and their People. journal of American Studies 24.1 (1990) 41-59. Web. Apr. 2012.Press, H. The empirical Basis of Marxism. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 37.3 (1977) 331-344. Web. Apr. 2012.Whitman, Walt. Leaves of Grass. New York Bantam, 1983. Print.