“I think I could turn and live with animals, they're so placid and self-contain'd,
I stand and look at them long and long.”
Human’s behave more like animals than animals do. In the couplet above, taken from Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself,” Whitman displays his disapproval of human behavior. As the theme of pride and self celebration is highlighted in the poem, Whitman states that he likes the behavior of animals more than the behavior of humans. Whitman idealizes the perfect society in the behavior of animals, which shows his strong appreciation and connection to Nature. He appreciates how animals have a sense of self-celebration embedded in them as they do not judge each other and are not afraid to portray their true personality. On the other hand, he believes humans are ashamed of who they are and are trying to achieve perfection causing them to lose their true identity and to live a pretentious life. Further, unlike humans, animals do not live in fear of being wrong and sinning, and they do not live their lives in fear of God. Whitman admires their liberality. Whitman believes that similar to animals, if the society stops judging one another for who they are, there will be no such thing as a “wrong” person and everyone will be able to live openly without concealing their true identity.
Author
Aditya Goel
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