Vision Of The Speaker In Other Men example essay topic

Walking Through Hell Pablo Neruda's poem "Walking Around" displays a horrid look at society from a struggling class side in a communist light. Neruda uses personal accounts to describe an angry view on democracy and similar forms of government through tactical metaphors. Repetition helps create a dark feeling inside the speaker's head, similar to a depressed line of thought. The speaker feels sickened by the human race's destruction of the world and morality. He feels that the government has destined his life to be their tool and his desire not to be pulls him through each day. Thoughts of overcoming these obstacles are tightly pressed for he sees himself as just one man.

Neruda concludes his character trudging on in reality; with hope that one day he will be more than just one man and they can overcome barriers created by their government. In the first stanza we learn that the speaker feels like human life is a complete run-down and would like nothing more than to escape its walls. The first line states, "It happens that I am tired of being a man" (1). He continues, "It happens that I go into tailor's shops and the movies / all shriveled up, impenetrable, like a felt swan / navigating on a water of origin and ash" (2-4).

As he follows the steps of his life, the speaker is dragged down by materialism and feels fake next to it. The entertainment industry's exploitations and exaggerations cause him to feel empty. He is moving through the sweat of the past to a future he hopes isn't inevitable. The last line can also be related to the sea of the government, controlling entertainment and merchandise, which encompasses so much of the world. The second stanza holds a better view of how Neruda's poem represents intense emotions against government power and the state of humanity. After a continued image from the first stanza, we read, "I want nothing but the repose either of stones or of wool" (6).

Stones and wool are relative to earth and animal, nature in its pure form. The speaker wishes there to be only "pure" nature. The lines, "I want to see no more establishments, no more gardens, / nor merchandise, nor glasses, nor elevators", (6-8), represent the five major powers. Establishment is clearly the government systems under which he lives. Gardens can be viewed as man attempting to recreate the natural beauty of the world; the speaker wants a "pure" nature, not man-made.

Merchandise easily designates our monopolies, circulation of money, expenses which rise every month. Seeing the world through rose-colored glasses is looking only at what is good for you, this gives us glass. Elevators are the easy-ups in life, old money; while some must climb the ladder of success, some people hold the key to the elevators in their back pocket. The speaker could only achieve his "pure" nature if these things were absent.

Neruda relates the speaker to human again before expressing, "Just the same it would be delicious / to scare a notary with a cut lily" (12-13). These lines show that the speaker has an ambition to disrupt the law and change the plan of his life in zany ways. He continues, "Or knock a nun stone dead with one blow of an ear" (14). Nuns are considered to be married to God; you are creating a greater act against God by killing a nun than a priest. He speaks against physical laws with the notary but switches to fate with an attack against God. Neruda concludes in a short stanza, "It would be beautiful / to go through the streets with a green knife / shouting until I died of cold" (15-17).

Green is the color of jealousy and envy, a root of his rage; the knife is also an example of extreme anger. He is saying he wants to put up a fight. "I do not want to go on being a root in the dark", (18), simply explains that he is sick of always helping the government get stronger by draining funds into needed expenses. The speaker no longer wants to suck up the water for someone else and would like to raise up high enough to actually see its benefits. We read "I do not want to be the inheritor of so many misfortunes" (22). This is a crystal clear line explaining that he does not want to continue and have this broken record be his future.

The speaker does not want to fall victim to the government and become lost in its sea with lost dreams decaying in his mind, killing him slowly. He says this in, "I do not want to continue as a root and as a tomb, / as a solitary tunnel, as a cellar full of corpses, / stiff with cold, dying with pain" (23-25). Neruda has defined the speaker at this point as a disgruntled citizen of a society that keeps the poor, poor and the rich, rich. He wants nothing more than the opportunity to excel, but he is being held back by forces he outside of his control. "For this reason Monday burns like oil", (26), this describes the anger of returning to a dead-end job every week knowing that he is supporting that which he despises. A day of work is like torture "and it howls in passing like a wounded wheel", (28), breaking more as it goes and screaming with the agony.

He examines the rage that drives him forward in the line, "and its footsteps towards nightfall are filled with hot blood" (29). Monday pains his spirit, but the end of the day brings a renewed energy to beat the system. Hell on earth is the state in which our speaker finds himself. In line 30 he feels pushed home through what sounds like a mirror description of hell: "And it shoves me along to certain corners, to certain damp houses, / to hospitals where the bones come out of the windows, / to certain cobblers's hops smelling of vinegar, / to streets horrendous as crevices" (30-33). The streets on his way home are filled with holes that the speaker could easily fall into if he doesn't pay attention. These crevices hold death itself, as Neruda describes clearly using are senses to create a rank, dirty vision of death.

Death is being stuck in one of these holes in a diseased city and not overcoming what he feels the government deems his fate. The hell continues, "There are birds the color of sulphur, and horrible intestines / hanging from the doors of the houses which I hate", (34-35). Sulphur is known for its horrible stench, and the vision of intestines hanging on doors is quite easily hell. The grotesque imagery of hell is amplified by Neruda's use of hate in this stanza. In lines 37 and 38 Neruda writes, "there are mirrors / which should have wept with shame and horror".

This describes the vision of the speaker in other men that make him hate things about himself. Line 39 refers to "poisons", which are involved with the above-mentioned pits of despair. The speaker feels incredibly strong about his place in the system, as is abundantly apparent in this poem. The final stanza brings the speaker back to being a man, it begins, "I stride along with calm, with eyes, with shoes, / with fury, with forgetfulness", (40-41). The shoes define him as a man, but all are characteristics of human beings. Once again, the speaker is faced with the reality of still being just one man.

It seems not to bother him as much, for he seems relaxed, continuing, "I pass, I cross offices and stores full of orthopedic appliances, / and courtyards hung with clothes on wires, / underpants, towels and shirts which weep / slow dirty tears" (42-45). He talks about passing by distractions that could lead him astray from his goals. He notices the objects of the world, characterizing them with "slow dirty tears". They cry at the outrage of human existence, that it has allowed itself to become so close to destruction. The speaker is depressed by the world and continues to attempt a rise above it. This poem involves two conflicts; one is man vs. self and the other is man vs. government / man.

The speaker feels suppressed by the control his government reigns over him and fears he will not be able to move on from a non-recognized career. He battles with himself on whether or not he can overcome such a great obstacles, especially when he sees his own characteristics in the men around him, which he hates. Neruda represents the agony of the world's existence, the upgrades that will lead to its doom. The speaker has decided that the situation handed to him is not acceptable. He is also a realist, knowing that his dreams will not come true without taking what he's given now, and progressing through the trash to become great.

The speaker also knows that you have to have a dream to have a dream come true. "Walking Around" -Pablo Neruda It happens that I am tired of being a man. It happens that I go into the tailors's hops and the movies all shriveled up, impenetrable, like a felt swan navigating on a water of origin and ash. The smell of barber shops makes me sob out loud.

I want nothing but the repose either of stones or wool, I want to see no more establishments, no more gardens, nor merchandise, nor glasses, nor elevators. It happens that I am tired of my feet and my nails and my hair and my shadow. It happens that I am tired of being a man Just the same it would be delicious to scare a notary with a cut lily or knock a nun stone dead with one blow of an ear. It would be beautiful to go through the streets with a green knife shouting until I died of cold.

I do not want to go on being a root in the dark, hesitating, stretched out, shivering with dreams, downwards, in the wet tripe of the earth, soaking it up and thinking, eating every day. I do not want to be the inheritor of so many misfortunes. I do not want to continue as a root and as a tomb, as a solitary tunnel, as a cellar full of corpses, stiff with cold, dying with pain. For this reason Monday burns like oil at the sight of my jail-face, and it howls in passing like a wounded wheel, and its footsteps towards nightfall are filled with hot blood. And it shoves me along to certain corners, to certain damp houses, to hospitals where the bones come out of the windows, to certain cobblers's hops smelling if vinegar, to streets horrendous as crevices. There are birds the color of sulphur, and horrible intestines hanging from the doors of the houses which I hate, there are forgotten sets of teeth in a coffee-pot, there are mirrors which should have wept with shame and horror, there are umbrellas all over the place, and poisons, and navels.

I stride along with calm, with eyes, with shoes, with fury, with forgetfulness, I pass, I cross offices and stores full of orthopedic appliances, and courtyards hung with clothes on wires, underpants, towels and shirts which weep slow dirty tears. Translated from the Spanish by W.S. Mervin.