Nature vs Nurture

A Literary Conversation Between Kerouac and Whitman

“There is freedom within, there is freedom without…” The Crowded House song “Don’t Dream It’s Over” begins. The question of what makes a person act and do the things they do is an interesting one, it is something that literary giants Jack Kerouac and Walt Whitman have tackled in their work. Kerouac uses the short story, Big Sur, to make his point that everything is about nurture and that the surrounding environment contributes to how a person acts. While Whitman, in Song of Myself, takes a different view but says that it is in the biology of a person that determines characteristics. Kerouac and Whitman, decades apart, make their arguments for nature and nurture in regard to religion, sexuality, and change.

Religion is fundamental in some people’s lives. In literature, the reader is lead to believe that a character is righteous because they are God-fearing. What many authors avoid talking about is what leads to them believing in their deity of choice. Kerouac tackles that subject in a unique way, by having Jack Duluoz tell us about a “lecture” that he was supposed to give. “I rush to explain to Cody what happened the year before when his religious advisor at the prison had invited me to come to San Quentin to lecture the religious class — Dave Wain was supposed to drive me and wait outside the prison walls…” Kerouac is saying that religion is handed down from man to man. The Religious Advisor invited him to invite the prisoners to come to Christianity. Duluoz also tries to relate his experience of being in prison to the prisoners, in the hopes of making them see that he is just like them. Another way that Kerouac believes that Christianity is manufactured. In the 1960s a debate was brewing about whether or not God was real and Kerouac made his theory well known.

Whitman does not believe that religion is manufactured, rather he thinks that it surrounds people from birth. According to the legendary poet, nothing is more apparent than God from the cradle to the grave because he is in everything. In Song of Myself, he writes: “Loafe with me on the grass, loose the stop from your throat, Not words, not music or rhyme I want, not custom or lecture, not even the best, Only the lull I like, the hum of your valvèd voice.” God is everywhere, if listened for hard enough he can be heard talking. Loving and depending on the Lord is as natural as doing the same things with one’s parents. In the late 1800’s people just believed that God was real, that he was the reason why people roamed the Earth. Whitman’s feelings on this matter were right in line with what society believed.

Whitman’s beliefs on sexual orientation were not in line with what society believed, however. He believed that heterosexuality was not natural, but he was not opposed to it, the way people were opposed to homosexuality. “Houses and rooms are full of perfumes, the shelves are crowded with perfumes, I breathe the fragrance myself and know it and like it,” Perfumes are associated with women. Whitman is saying that he likes females, he knows that many homes are built on the foundation of a marriage between a man and a woman. In the next line though he drops a bombshell: “The atmosphere is not a perfume, it has no taste of the distillation, it is odorless, It is for my mouth forever, I am in love with it,” Here he admits that being gay is natural and that he loves being with other men. Kerouac though disagrees with Whitman.

Kerouac lived during a time of sexual revolution, where people were freer to explore their more carnal desires. The 1960’s allowed people to experiment more and to not feel ashamed of anything that they did. Like with religion, Kerouac deems it more of a human thing, something that is created rather than just being around. He says “…. great tomes like the Kama Sutra were in the process of being developed, tomes that give you instructions on every act, facet, approach, moment, trick, lick, lock, bing and bang, and slurp of how to make love with another human being ‘male or female’…” In strikingly obvious wording, Kerouac says that both hetero and homosexuality is a choice. People are told by society what is appropriate and taught by books on how to perform the acts that will make their partner happy. In most instances this would be couched in a metaphor or poetic language, however Kerouac decided to let everyone know outright what he believed and why he believed this. Something that he did not do with the issue of change.

Everything is change. This is what students are told from a young age, and like death is supposed to be an accepted part of life. This might be why so many authors, including Kerouac, use death as a metaphor for change. Duluoz reveals his discomfort with a friend taking his life in a new direction; “But I cant believe old Zen Master George is going to allow his body to die just now tho it looks like it when we pass through the lawn….” Change makes people uncomfortable, especially when it comes to losing a close friendship as is suggested here. In a way, it is not surprising that Kerouac uses death as his metaphor because it can feel like a friend might be passing on when they make a choice to go in another direction. Kerouac though seems to think that this change might not be the sole choice of his friend but an outside influence. “…see him dejected on the edge of his bed with his hair hanging over his brow where before it was combed back — He’s in a bathrobe and looks up at us almost displeased…” George did not want his old friends to see how much his life had changed in the years since they last hung out. Now he is shackled to an institution, probably marriage. It is clear from the passage that he misses his single life and wants to go back to it, but the only way he sees to get out is to die. Again with the death metaphor.

Eschewing the death metaphor, in Song of Myself a barn is used to show change. Like so many other things, Whitman disagrees with Kerouac and believes that changes happen because changes happen. It is not decided by man but rather celebrated as something that occurs all the time and everywhere. “The big doors of the country barn stand open and ready, The dried grass of the harvest-time loads the slow-drawn wagon, The clear light plays on the brown gray and green intertinged, The armfuls are pack’d to the sagging mow.” An open door usually signifies that one is ready for whatever comes, and while there may be burdens that do not have a negative impact on whether the change occurs. Rather being ready for something new, whether it is helpful (like money, green) or a setback (bills, sagging arms), is a necessity of life. Without change, a person dies.

Perhaps Whitman was the one who inspired the death as a metaphor for change trope, which Kerouac arguably perfected in Big Sur. Of course, that seemingly goes against Whitman’s stance that nature is the driving force of how things happen, rather than a man making those decisions. Nearly 60 years later, Kerouac disagreed with the theories set forth in Song of Myself and set about proving that man makes the decisions on his own. Both provide compelling arguments for religion, sexuality, and change being man-made or part of our natural existence. Both used their works and time period to show what society was thinking and how it shaped their views. It is not hard to imagine these men being friends and engaging in the debate. Nor would it be a stretch for them to quote Don’t Dream its Over by Crowded House when rumors of a feud erupted; “When the world comes in, They come, they come. To build a wall between us…” That of course would be man-made.