Transcendentalists believe in thoughts, beliefs, and opinions unrestrained by authority, tradition, established belief, and religion. It allows one to put aside all outside influences and empathize with all those around him. In O me! O life! Whitman describes no one has freethought anymore, everyone just desires the same things without any individuality or compassion. “Of eyes that vainly crave the light--of the objects mean--of the struggle ever renew’d. Of the poor results of all-- of the plodding and sordid crowds I see around me.” (Whitman handout 6-7). Whitman voices his frustration about all the mindless souls around him simply craving for materialistic things by using repetitive “of”s to describe every different crowd who search for the power of the unimportance like the American dream. Not only Whitman sees the people around him desire only of materialism, he sees that those people are just stepping in place, they keep working and working but never get ahead or move forward; just stuck in place of unrealistic desire and greed. A short animated film on youtube called Think also voices out this philosophy; the short film does not contain any dialogue but a picture speaks a thousand words. The story starts out as someone sketching out a diagram/map of finding true happiness and experiencing the world to the fullest potential; but then he is distracted by another man who takes him to a church to pray and be taught morals of faith and religion. Unwilling to be taught what to think, he runs away from the church, only to stumble upon another man who takes him to a political campaign to be persuaded and fed lies, he then again runs away and continues his journey of finding true happiness. That is when he comes face to face with the army, war and violence, he is offered a place in the army to be trained for war, to numb the mind to prepare for killing, horrified he sneaks off once again. He finally finds the “portal” to happiness only to find out someone from the past three groups has already beat him to it, however, because their mindsets are shaped a certain way, their physical appearances are also shaped a certain way, blocking them from being able to enter the portal. Only the man who thinks for himself is able to fit through the portal, because it is his own portal, and it’s shaped to fit his own mindset. The entire film is in black and white till the very end when he enters through the portal when everything becomes vibrant and colorful. Much like Whitman’s poem, the film expresses the importance of rather than being blinded by the norms and irrelevant details in life to truly see and appreciate the beauty in the universe and nature.
“Think” Youtube. Beaubaphat, n.d Jan 31st, 2011
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