The Altruistic Self in Walt Whitman's Drum-Taps

The Altruistic Self in Walt Whitman's Drum-Taps

This paper is to research the altruistic self in Walt Whitman's Civil War poetry and prose. Whitman wrote, "The real war will never get in the books" in his prose. From the Civil War, he described the war fought by miserable, individual soldiers, as well as heroic scenes Whitman refers to each soldier's harsh and wretched situation based on his personal observations of field hospitals and camps. In this situation, Whitman's prideful self changed significantly from a self-centered view to a selfless view. The Civil War throughly provides Whitman with the discovery of selfless self. It means that Whitman's altruistic self develops more universal ideals, so the Civil War was the fountain where Whitman realized altruism After the Civil War, his altruistic self as seen in his poetry demonstrates his developed and matured view of self. That is to say, Whitman's self-centeredness moves to a selfless altruistic self. Therefore, this thesis is to identify Whitman's Drum-Taps into three categories the self-centered self of prewar and early war, selfless self during the Civil War, and transcendental self after the assassination of President Lincoln and in the spirit of the dead soldiers. By suffering the Civil War, Whitman found divinity in the crucified sons of God instead of the resurrected self as God's son, and he found the symbol of eternal and transcendental self Whitman formed his altruistic self which felt pity and sympathy toward others through such a harsh war. Finally, Whitman demonstrated his newfound altruism in his poetic works.