Walking Around Essay, Research Paper

Walking Around

Pablo Neruda gives us a good example of Vanguard Literature in his poem Walking Around. We can see the influence of surrealism in the poem because it does not rhyme at all, instead is an effort to express feelings and emotions in a free style. We can also see the existentialism idea as Neruda is bold and tells us everything that is in his mind.

Neruda tells us what he thinks about society in general. In this poem we can see that Neruda is tired of technology, he says that he no longer desires to see elevators, or merchandise, or movie theaters. He is tired of all the new inventions humans have made. He is tired of seeing the same things over and over again wherever he goes. Same shoe shops, same stores, etc. In my opinion, he thinks that we have lost our individuality and that we all own the exact same artifacts and we all want to have whatever everyone else has. I also think that he’s sorry that humans cannot appreciate the beauty of nature, and are polluting it with factories, buildings, and alike.

Neruda grew up in the wilderness, and I think that he misses the wild landscapes and the fresh air he used to breath when he was a boy. The line that confused me was when he says that it would be “delicious to kill a nun.” I thought that because of his experience of loosing a friend during war, he would be against any kind of violence. But, I then I thought that since existentialism consists of an active role of the will, and not the reason, Neruda was just being spontaneous. He probably was just trying to get out all that he felt, even if this meant going to the extremes.

Neruda was probably disappointed of the new inventions, and the destruction of nature and man itself. This poem clearly shows that Neruda is tired of living in the world around him.