Because I still not totally sure what Walt Whitman's idea of "Self" really is, I think it is a little difficult to give my own interpretation of it. I am not a fan of Walt Whitman, and because of this I find his ideas a little ridiculous and pretty self-centered. Basically, Whitman is trying to tie religion, sexuality, and a whole bunch of other ideas into his poems by fitting them into his philosophy of true self. He takes the phrase "God is everything and everything is God" a bit too literally and thinks that because of this, he is God in a way. And I do not agree with this. Walt Whitman is not God. No one else is God, except for God himself. That's just the way it goes; at least that's how I see it. I also do not understand how Whitman can try and relate all of these poems back to God, especially the sexual ones. Although I personally do not have a problem with Walt Whitman's sexual orientation, homosexuality is not exactly accepted in the Bible and in a lot of religions.
Basically, I think that "Self" is something that started out as a simple idea and then became way too complicated and egotistical. It is about seeing yourself as who you really are, not just the perception of yourself that other people see. You cannot be totally sure which side of you is the real one, and which side is the one that you have adapted or changed to meet other people's standards or even your own standards. In my opinion, it is also about making realizations about your own religion and beliefs regarding God and applying those beliefs and ideas to your life in
every way that you realistically can.
I think that to understand "Self", it has to be interpreted in a way that you can understand. I do not think that you can understand the idea if you are trying to go through someone else's interpretation, and you really do have to see it in your own way to have any idea what is going on. Therefore, I do not think that there is really any correct definition of "Self", because it can change for every person.
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