The American Sense of the Possible in Literature - Essay Example

The American Sense of the Possible in Literature The American spirit and sense of what could be-- the possible-- is celebrated and proclaimed throughout American literature. What sets this spirit apart is the willingness of American authors to examine the self from both celebratory and critical points of view. There has been no easy road for Americans to settle the continent and to establish themselves, and American authors and writers do not shy away from examining this process form a critical point of view. There is also no shortage of authors extolling the uniqueness of the American experiment, with all of its inequities, hardships, obstacles, and desire to make "a more perfect Union," as Lincoln said in his inaugural address (Lincoln). But American authors, in the end, can be defined by their inherent ability to realize the uniqueness of the human spirit and the celebration of the self. Whether overcoming obstacles or even the failure to do so--that desire is celebrated in the triumph of the spirit to always move forward, towards something better in this life. It is this relentless push forward (similar to our pioneering roots of moving West, and discovering or reinventing a new life for ourselves, again and again) that American authors celebrate in the genre of modern American literature. This inward examination and outward manifestation of this spirit can be seen in a wide variety of contexts in American literature, ranging from the identifiable self and to the larger natural world, including the psychological struggles of survival, and ethnic and personal hurdles that one encounters through life. Each of these uniquely American authors longs to tell the story of their selves, and to celebrate a struggle--some won, some lost-- and ultimate victory of the American spirit. Walt Whitman, in his masterpiece poem, "Song of Myself," begins the American journey. In this original, lengthy, free verse poem, which often reads more like prose than poetry, Whitman tackles the celebration of the self and its relation to nature-- to the American continent. It is this unique relationship between human beings and the natural land that sets the stage for that American identity and its relationship with nature and our content. With sweeping blank verse, Whitmans prose/poetry style breaks open the bounds of poetry and self-expression, a typical American trait. Whitman looks inward, to the essence of his beg, examines it, caresses, it, and exalts it. With the simple question of a child, "What is grass" (Whitman)? Whitman sees the grass as a symbol of American democracy, and sees it as covering the entire continent from graves of dead Civil War soldiers, to the fields cross the continent. Whitman also looks outward, beyond the self to see his surroundings and to see the symbiotic relationship that the human soul shares with nature-- it is almost as if they are one. Indeed, the title of his books is one based in nature, "Leaves of Grass," which demands that both the human spirit and the wondrous mysteries of nature are intertwined. It is this complete immersion into the human spirit--the American spirit-- and the unlimited potential for humanity that fills Whitman with such glee. It is Whitmans American sense of himself that allows those possibilities to come to the fore, and be celebrated in this way, with no literary bounds or poetic constraints to contain it. The written words on the page break those bounds as much as his joyous romp through nature and every conceivable human emotion. He demands that we look inward and investigate every detail of existence, looking at all of our senses, and experiences that a human can experience. He writes them in a stream-of-consciousness narrative that blows up the conventional poem into a more dynamic celebration of the existence. There is no love lost, nothing to lament, just the naked joy at experiencing life through the sense and seeing an immense quality in the American and human condition. This work sets the stage for later authors to adopt as a unique Americanism of hope, renewal, faith, love, and sensuousness. Just as the human spirit is celebrated in Whitmans "Song of Myself," the human spirit is also celebrated in Jack Londons short story, "To Build a Fire." This stands out as a contrarian piece to Whitmans ever-joyous celebration of naturalism, to one with a much darker ending for the protagonist, with less of a joyous bond with nature, but of a separate morality in the choices he makes, in direct contradiction to the natural world around him. But throughout the pages of this classic short story there is a built-in essence of hope and life-- the confidence that he will get the fire lit and save his life. There is, throughout the work, a sense of hope, and an anticipation of success. It is only in the end that the reader is left to realize the blunder, the last spark, and ultimate loss of life. The mans death seemingly is a direct result of the choices he made earlier in his desire to get somewhere by a specified time, concerned less with the ramifications of those choices. But, as Americans before him and since, the man took on those chances in the wilderness willingly, with the chance of death surrounding him. Sometimes, London attempts to show us, man and nature do not have an unlimited joyous bond as Whitman saw it, but a relationship that often results in death. In the end, nature always wins out. Whitman, in his way, concedes this point and celebrates mans relationship with the larger world, and sees nature as having the ultimate say in things. London would likely agree, but shows us the many moral or amoral choices that man has that affects outcomes. London celebrates this reality of life-and-death struggles that Americans faced in their own land, and in the wilderness, away from the confines of comfortable civilization. Is it this (western) spirit of the American experience that helped to build the American self-identification with risk-taking and its inherent failure or success. Sometimes risk ends up in defeat and even death, but London strove to illustrate the valiant struggle for the American character to survive, even in the harshest of conditions. But even being in that state of risk, with its rewards and punishments, the protagonists life was richer still for experience. To London, and the American writer, even death-- under trying circumstances-- beats a life of sitting by a fire at an old age, having done little to test the survival of the soul. The struggle to survive in harsh conditions is itself a celebration, in a way, of the American will to persevere-- of the American desire to survive and the enduring spirit of the soul. Man against nature is a common theme in Londons writing, a theme which reflects the enduring struggles that Americans had in settling the American West, surviving or dying in often harsh conditions. Many survived, but many did not, and London breaks it down into a simple quirk of fate, or luck, even, that may determine whether someone survives or not. At times, the human spirit loses out to fate, but the will to survive resides within each living soul. It is this spirit of survival that London celebrates, in the best tradition of Whitman. As Americans built up the country and survived the elements of settling the frontier, the great accomplishments of Americans is celebrated in works such a "Chicago," by the poet Carl Sandburg, He celebrates an American city; filled with a proclamation and energy of what is possible in America, and what a growing city is capable of. To Sandburg, Chicago represents a growing and expanding American society as it reaches westward; echos of Whitmans song of the self, but in a broader sense of community and accomplishment outside of the natural world. It is almost a celebration of the taming of the wild natural world that Whitman reveled in and that London showed could take a life.. Sandburg expands from the singular soul that Whitman and London celebrated, to the collective shoulders of a city, and of a region of the country. The city with "big shoulders" is forged from people with large expectations of what humans can accomplish and big goals and ideals upon which those accomplishments rest. It is upon those shoulders of giants that Americans of today trace their sense of "can do" and "if you can dream it, do it.." Chicago exemplifies this sense of limitless accomplishments, and construction to Sandburg. It was and is a city which shed any eastern history for a sense of an invented present, with innovation in technology, industry, and agriculture, with his famous beginning of the poem: Hog Butcher for the World, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with Railroads and the Nations Freight Handler Stormy, husky, brawling, City of the big Shoulders (Sandburg) In reality, Sandburg celebrates the American spirit just as Whitman did, but chooses to celebrate that manifestation in industrial and urban innovation, away from the natural, more to a more determinative reality. Today, Sandburg could just as easily, be writing of American ingenuity in technology and innovation in Silicon Valley or medicine. That spirit and sense of boundless thinking and production is a hallmark of Americanism, which flowered in the Industrial Revolution of the 19th century, and still carries on today, in the 21st century. Sandburgs celebration of Chicago seems to mirror Whitmans celebration of nature and the soul, with as much passion and with less words, but with a similar zeal in his interpretation of the city and desire to show it all-- good and bad. As all-encompassing as Whitman and Sandburg attempt to be, it is his simplicity that Frost excels. The New England poet, Frost succeeds in celebrating choices in life but in a much more simple contextual setting: a simple country road. In his deceivingly simple poem, "The Road Not Taken," Robert Frost breaks down that vastness of accomplishments and celebration of innovations that Sandburg extolls and simplifies it in a way that is almost brilliant in its simplicity. As a modern 20th century poet with a 19th century sensibility, (as opposed to Sandburg, an early 20th century poet with a truly modern 20th century approach) Frost celebrates a Whitman-esque victory of the human spirit of taking chances, and taking roads that many others do not take. But he does so in the most simple of terms, focusing on "two roads diverged in the wood." Leading his one-horse sleigh on a cold winter night, the starkness of the individuals choices is felt-- alone in the cold, like Londons protagonist, but with a much less daunting challenge on his hands-- but amazingly, with no less impact on the American spirit. There is no outward struggle, no life-or-death drama, no western urban accomplishments to extoll, only a man and his horse, facing two paths on their way to somewhere-- is it home? a new life? an exploration? The reader is left to create that reasoning for himself, but that choice presented in the most simple of allegorical choices. Frost gives a sense of the wonderment to such a simple choice, and the realization that the less traveled road is often the best choice in life. This realization may come towards the end of life, as the journey is being made at night, in the winter of life, but sometimes one looks back on a life well-lived and realized those simple moments in life where a seemingly innocuous choice had come to make a great difference in the persons life. Once again, the characteristic of the American spirit is celebrated, where a path is blazed, a trail is made, and chances are taken, but what would have happened if the other path was taken? In typical American fashion, Frost does not worry about that. He knew that he would never take the unchosen path again, and let it go in his mind. What might have been? He doesnt worry himself with such thoughts: And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back (Frost) The celebration of the individualistic choices and chances are shown to have made all the difference, not only in the life of an individual, but in the life of a country as well. It is this same spirit that Whitman and London celebrate: an ideal that settles not for the known--the safe-- but one that take chances in life, stands out, follows passions. Again, this simple choice defines the American life as one based on chance and choosing the unknown as much as anything, but even though bad outcomes are possible (London), at least the chances were taken- a typically American approach to lifes choices. Some authors celebrate what it means to be an American less, and focus on what we can do better in this experimental continent. Langston Hughes and Sylvia Plath both look inside at themselves and outside at the larger society, and often do not like what they see. But both see a chance of redemption, even with such imperfections in their experiences. Langston Hughs "Democracy" is a scathing criticism of the American system of democracy, with its inherent evils of racism, but it offers hope and longs to perfect this union, with all of its human faults. As American literature matured in the 20th century, authors were able to assume the mantle of the American spirit, but were able to look inward to what issues we, as Americans still needed to confront. Hughes desires the America of the Constitution to emerge, one which glorifies the individual and allows each person, regardless of skill color to be able to enjoy the freedom of the self, just as Whitman enjoyed his existence and saw it singing in all the nature around him. Hughes wants that same sense for his people, and is a counter-response, in a way, to Whitmans celebration of the self. He knows that true Democracy must come from the people, from a place in the heart that is pure, unstained by the thought of suppression or inequities. Democracy will not come Today, this year Nor ever Through compromise and fear (Hughes) For Hughes, that celebration of the self must wait until all people have the freedoms that Whitman enjoys and sang about from the soul. Until then, one cannot imagine Hughes extolling the human spirit as Whitman did. Indeed, he says that democracy will not come "today, this year, nor ever" if we ever compromise our principles or live in fear of each other. In a way, he makes Whitman seem silly, celebrating the soul while such human injustices still remain. That is Hughes reality, as opposed to Whitmans and shows the continued development of the American focus, away from larger concerns, to smaller ones affecting the American and human conditions. But, it can also be said that Whitman and Hughes do sing the same song. It is one of hope, of renewal, of possibility. Hughes is not lamenting the loss of the democratic experiment as much as he is attempting to perfect it. He knows that much potential still lies within the American spirit, and that this experiment, with all of its flaws, can still be one that reflects the ideals of the founding fathers. The possibility of true democracy for all still exists for Hughes, and it still exists for his people. Without that uniquely American trait of hopefulness and optimism, it would have been quite easy for Hughes to lament the loss of what could have been, never to be. Sylvia Plath, in "Daddy" laments a more personal past, in a similar sense as Hughes laments his present, but takes on the inherently American characteristic of examining ones life and seeing connections between the generations--father and daughter in this sense--and attempting to make sense out of ones life within this context. Where Whitman, Frost, and London extolled the virtue of nature and the human spirit, Hughes and Plath look inward and examine the difficulties of living an "American life" with its inherent inequities and psychological obstacles. It is this maturation of American literature that represents the 20th century that was not possible in the 19th century. Plath is compelled to write of her dead father, and laments the man he was and the effect he had on her. From the beginning of the poem, she says that she is donna with him in the first stanza: "You do not do, you do not do/Any more, black shoe." He is discarded as one would, with an old shoe. No use for the confines of it anymore. It is this lifelong struggle with her relationship with her father that drove Plath to attempt suicide in her early years (she finally succeeded in mid-life). Now, in the mid-20th century, American authors take on their demons with a purity and willingness that si striking. Throughout this poem, Plath is honest, introspective, and crying for help, as she comes to terms with her life-long of trying to love her father and finally burying his memory, so she can move on with her own life. I was ten when they buried you. At twenty I tried to die And get back, back, back to you. … So daddy, Im finally through. (Plath) In a psychological examination of her existence, Plath must come to terms with her relationship with her father, and must move on. It is the writing of this poem, and the frank examination of their relationship that allows her to concede a lost opportunity, but also to see a hopefulness in her future. It is the physical act of writing this poem that gives Plath the ability to move beyond her relationship with her father and to move on to living her own life, apart from him. It is literature for personal growth in Plath and Hughes, that allows them to vent their frustrations with life, but also, by venting those frustrations, to be able to move on. It is both a lament for what is or was, and a song of hopefulness for the future-- Hughes for racial equality, Plath for the confrontation of her own personal demons. Both poems are cathartic for the authors, and also show the inner feelings of the poets at that time. Very little is hidden from the reader-- the world-- and it is this voyage of introspection that allows American literature to really claim its throne. It is this duality of thought-- limitless expansion, but with a certain inward introspection and critique of the American system, that allows the American sense of expression to mature, and in this sense, to fulfill the symphony of human emotions that Whitman extolled a century earlier . American authors are not afraid to critique the American experiment, but they also are not afraid to extoll the virtues and possibilities inherent in the American spirit. As American literature matured, authors moved from a larger celebration of the American experiment to a more introverted examination of our faults and lost expectations. By examining and confronting their pasts, and presents--and the inherent human failures within each of those-- the American personas inherent optimism is allowed to soar. Yes, issues of life are examined and dealt with before any human existence can be seen as freeing, but throughout the survey of American literature, there is this unyielding sense that life is unfinished. We are not doomed to this or that, and that even the most dire of circumstances can be changed with action, ideals, ideas, and hard work. Beginning with Whitman set the stage for this boundless, eternal optimism present even in the most critical of works by American authors. Of course, Whitman had his demons, but he instead focused on the exquisite joy of celebrating the human spirit, its relation to nature and the larger world. The words seemed to come flowing out of his pen, uncontrolled, like a mighty river, as he saw the unlimited potential of the human spirit within this new American continent. Other writers, like Hughes and Plath, saw certain failures of the American experiment, but always fought for a sense of bettering themselves, if not their country. Realists like Plath and Hughes saw the human spirit as able to survive whatever others may throw at them. There is always a sense of hope in their words, even when focusing on events that cause them pain. Frost and Sandburg were less focused on exorcising those demons and more focused on completing Whitmans sentences, with a realization and celebration of choices, accomplishments, and deeds, as they relate to the individual and the larger collective. London echos WHitman, perhaps, in his examination of mans; relationship with nature, but also shows us, as does Hughes, that the human experiment is not all roses and celebrations. Life is met with difficulties and death, and it is up to those of us with that fore burning within ourselves to chose to meet challenges head on. We may not be successful all the time, but it is that American sense of the possible that keeps us going from generation to generation. These authors knew this, and the American people know this, and their writings reflect this collective esprit we call Americanism. Works Cited Frost, Robert. "The Road Not Taken." Poets.org. Academy of American Poets. Web. April 20, 2013. Hughes, Langston. "Democracy." Poemhunter.com. January 3, 2003. Web. April 20, 2013. Lincoln, Abraham. "First Inaugural Address." Abraham Lincoln Online.org. Speeches and Writings. Web. April 25, 2013. London, Jack. "To Build a Fire." Loudlit.org. Web. April 18, 2013. Plath, Sylvia. "Daddy." Shmoop.com. Web. April 20, 2013. Sandburg, Carl. "Chicago." Poetryfoundation.org. Poetry Magazine. Web. April 19, 2013. Whitman, Walt. "Song of Myself." Illinois Department of English.Edu. Modern American Poetry. Web. April 17, 2013. Read More