A Study in American Cynicism

            Thoreau made the bold statement that “government is best which governs not at all." In his Civil Disobedience, he firmly proclaims his position that government is at best merely an expedient; it is not a choice means of people putting ideas into action but rather the next best thing. It quickly deteriorates, beginning to fall from the original goodness that it might have had. His point is simply that man is good by nature, but government obstructs the goodness of the whole of man, his collective will, when unhindered. 

            Likewise, in a similar vein, Emerson writes, “whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist” (876). He claims that to be a true man, a true individual, a person must stand up and live for himself, without regard to the culture surrounding him or the pressures of people who think a certain way, or others. An individual’s own perspective is what matters, and that is the only thing that matters. So, Emerson places happiness in self-value through self-affirmation, and like the other authors, in basic human and natural goodness. 

        Conversely, Dickinson seems less optimistic and more fatalistic. She writes,

            1052    

I never saw a Moor – 

            I never saw the sea – 

            Yet know I how the Heather looks 

            And what a Billow be.

 

            I never spoke with God 

            Nor visited in Heaven – 

            Yet certain am I of the spot 

            As if the Checks were given – 

            

In this poem, in the first stanza, Dickenson illustrates her certainty of the existence of Heaven and of God. She writes that she is certain of the spot “As if the Checks [tickets] were given.” The first line of her poem corresponds with the third, and the second line corresponds with the fourth. A Moor is a kind of marsh or wet plain, and a Heather is a certain plant that would grow there. A Billow is a wave on the ocean surface. Dickenson writes that while she may have never seen these things, she is certain of their existence as if she actually had seen them. Likewise, she may never have seen God or been in Heaven but she is just as certain of their existence as anything else. 

Dickinson seemed to extract this huge concept and dissect it from simple natural objects or ideas. She was probably quiet and thoughtful, as a woman. When I Could not Stop for Death takes a lighthearted view of death. Perhaps it really just makes death a little thing. I appreciate her overall depth and the fact that she says so much in so few and short verses.

I think this would have well suited the audience of the late 1800’s. And her images are common, which makes them relatable. She has a fierce independence that comes through as she seems to bring together simple objects and activities, some of which are dark, but makes them tame in a casual sense by likening them to everyday things. For that reason, she has such a universal appeal in my mind. 

Mark Tawin is "definitively" in the realist camp, but he does not seem to carry the same type of cynicism that the rest do. He is cynical but not dark. He writes about real people and real stuff that could happen, exaggerating the humor of these happenings. 

This being said, I doubt that I would enjoy the Naturalist genre like I would the Late Romantic and Realist. There are some authors of these genres that I do not like, Walt Whitman being one. 

Whitman writes in his Song of Myself, “I celebrate myself and sing myself” (1804). In Whitman’s poem, for example, it does not take but a few lines at most to figure out what he considers to be the natural condition and value of mankind as well as his own condition. He goes on valuing himself as the center of his perspective. Through himself, he sees the world in relation to him. Not untrue.

He had some very catchy cacophony in his style. Interesting that his writing itself will slow you down, just like his life philosophy was to slow down and enjoy the simple things. I have to acknowledge that he was interesting for that reason alone, yet I am unsure of how intentional he was of that. The Post-Modern poet, Allen Ginsberg, has much to say about this.