"the real war will never get told in books"
Whitman discusses how he does not believe that the truth of
the Civil War will ever be told. The more distance placed between the war and
society, the softer the memories are. It’s like having a baby; most women say
it hurts like crazy, but oh whoops, pregnant again- worth the pain or worth
forgetting the pain? I don’ think Whitman is necessarily talking about this
though, I think he is getting at a larger idea being the truth won’t be told
because it cant be told. With every soldier buried, pieces of the real war get
buried too. How do you tell the story of horror? How does a country cope? The
master narrative will condense the bloodshed into a chapter for students to
read, when
Whitman even discusses that all he can write about it will
still not do enough. I would like to note that Whitman worked in the hospital
wing, so even he can’t tell the true story of the war, only retell it. He was
not experiencing it first hand like all the soldiers buried he was just a
witness.
No comments:
Post a Comment