The Leaves Of Grass Literary Analysis

Authors during the antebellum period took personal interest in finding possible solutions to various social issues occurring in their lifetimes. One of the biggest topics writers seek to resolve is racial and slavery tensions between different social groups. Abolitionists and scholars used literature to address African Americans’ concerns and work within the public eye to better others lives. While authors like Ralph Emerson and Henry David Thoreau choose to describe a specific social issue and its’ association to nature, others as Walt Whitman explore explaining interconnectivity to answer the problem of racial relationships. In The Leaves of Grass, Whitman depicts how people have more in common with each other than they realize and care to

Leaves of Grass does a great job of showing how body parts can be utilized to display similarities between people. A clear and effective moment is when Whitman stated, “You settled your head athwart my hips and gently turned upon me, / and parted the shirt from my bosom-bone, and plunged your tongue to my barescript…” First concepts to note in the quote is Whitman 's diction, he uses words like ‘gently’, ‘settled’, ‘plunged’ all of which implies a progress people undergo when pursuing an interaction with others. In the case of slavery during 1800s United States, frequent interactions occur between Caucasian citizens of different social groups and limiting communication between slaves and masters. For slaves and masters, a forceful sexual relationship would occur and cause biracial children to be the result of the affair. Biracial children were not largely accepted by their fellow African slaves comrads nor by their white family counterparts because society associated addressed mix-race kids as abominations. As a result, pure-blood African slaves strengthen their connections to one another through racial and color alignment. Though the degree of racial exclusion between Caucasian, mix-race, and slaves varied in local areas, certain sentiments continually appear to bring groups together and foster areas for

Specifically he stated, “The suns I see and the suns I cannot see are in their place.” The line means Whitman is observant of his limitations on the world, but still proclaims the action and object is serving a purpose in the grand scheme. An example is slave auctions because Whitman did not always witness the auction happening, but argues that selling slaves was essential to the economy. Some critics of Whitman’s work may argue that slavery is a weak way to show how social groups were connected in the United States during the 19th