Oh, and this one….

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Is your analysis of Whitman as a commercial agent changed by the fact that this is a luxury vehicle rather than jeans? As in my prior post (people, seriously, this is turning into Blog of Myself, you have to get on it), what does this commercial say about America? About masculinity? About freedom? Feel free to analyze any specific moments also.

4 thoughts on “Oh, and this one….”

  1. Hmmmm, I think this commercial is definitely using Whitman’s words of the American landscape to literal use here with a car that’s supposed to take you everywhere—and perhaps it’s also trying to say this Volvo gives you the power to exist anywhere and on your own volition, which is a trait of American masculinity. I doubt they even considered a woman for this role ugh.

  2. I definitely agree with Aaliyah that this commercial is telling us that cars = power = men taking control of their own lives. That’s a very Whitman-esque take on self-reliance. But I can’t get over the irony that Man must use his gas-guzzling Luxury Sedan to Return to Nature.

  3. I had a relatively long response typed out to this and then accidentally closed the tab so now this is the TLDR version!
    The first thing that came to mind watching this was the second stanza of section 1 of “Song of the Open Road”, to save you going and finding that I’ll put it here:
    “Henceforth I ask not good-fortune, I myself am good-fortune,
    Henceforth I whimper no more, postpone no more, need nothing,
    Done with indoor complaints, libraries, querulous criticisms,
    Strong and content I travel the open road.” (Whitman 297)
    Whitman literally says here that he needs nothing to travel his path and he has all he needs in himself which very much opposes the idea of using a luxury car to “travel the open road”.
    Something we noted in class on Tuesday was Whitman’s interest in vehicles, and their mechanics, as seen by his usage of ships, and ferries, and other alternative modes of transit in his poems. We linked this fact back to “Song of the Open Road” by viewing the poem as a vehicle, with its wheels (stanzas) going around and around (repetition of form and descriptions). I think for this reason Whitman would like the idea of his work being used in a commercial for a car.
    However, to go back to the previous argument that the commercial contradicts Whitman’s words, I feel our view of cars is focused more on destination than journey which isn’t what Whitman thought. I mean he spends 11 pages writing about this journey on the road, with no specific mention of his destination. I find it very ironic that they chose to put the words “The long brown path before me leading wherever I choose” over a clip of the navigation system which literally tells you where to go. We use the GPS to get to a destination not to take the scenic route which is not at all what Whitman is talking about here.

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