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Walt Whitman And The New American Bible, Kristina K. George

Culminating Projects in English

During a time when America was in great crisis, Walt Whitman set out to unite the nation with a new American Bible. His concepts of individuality and equality matched his theories of faith and spirituality. He did not envision Democracy with religion; rather Democracy as religion. Drawing directly from images found in the King James Bible, Whitman set out to heal a country divided by war. Using specific examples from the deathbed edition of Whitman's masterpiece Leaves of Grass, I will demonstrate the heavy influence of the traditional Bible to the creation of his own.