Whitman's Language of the Self

The very beginning of the passage states that Whitman was inspired by the fact of a person's true self. Not a self that is unsure or unstable, but a self that is genuine and real. "To express a self. To display a 'Personality' 'uncompromisingly' with a limpid style, a transparent form that ardently renders an identity in all its plenitude and immediacy (Bauerlein). I love this sentence. And to think it is the first sentence!!
It is interesting. Mark Bauerlein points out that Whitman had multiple personalities. He could be "Alternating randomly between pride and humility, knowledge and ignorance, guilt and complacency..." (Bauerlein). Then later in Whitman's "Me Myself" he admits to his multiple masks that he has. It is interesting because one begins to wonder, am I wearing a mask? Am I really who I am around everybody, or am I different with different people? This is a penetrating question that beckons attention, though most do not give it thought.
This essay is motivating and insightful. Whenever something is said or mentioned that is important, I ask the question to myself. I mean do we ever realize what we do everyday, listen to, and talk to make a difference or impact on us? "With truth conceived of as a correspondence between private motive, desire, and experience, and public forms of expression, inherited styles pervert the self, force it to conform to a preordained syntax and decorum that distorts the ego and thereby alienates it from its own manifestations" (Bauerlein). This is a statement that makes us realize the importance of what we do and how what we do can effect us. Now this might not be the intended meaning of this part of the passage, but everybody can get something different out of different things.
This essay has broadened my view on this and made me think about who I am and how things effect me. It might seem small, but they are essential to life and are also life skills that everybody needs or should have.