Materialism and Walt Whitman

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talks about materialism in Leaves of Grass, he refers to the belief that the fundamental nature of the world is that people focus more on material things rather than ideas. In his other work, Democratic Vistas, Whitman focuses more on informing the society on what the actual problems are and what our country needs versus romanticizing what should be. Therefore, in Democratic Vistas, Whitman uses materialism to refer to the excessive desire to accumulate money and goods. Even though these meanings might be slightly different, they both affect democracy in America, according to Walt Whitman.
Materialism in the Leaves of Grass is a very interesting concept. In this poem, Walt Whitman tries to explain that the way people see the world at this time is through materialism rather than ideas that would make the society be progressive. He claims that people are so caught up with artificiality that they cannot focus on the reality and all the beauty that life, humans, and nature can ...

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