Narcissism for Humanity

Whitman celebrates humanity throughout the poem, but makes himself ambiguous to being a subject of narcissism. In Cantos 21 to 24, Whitman introduces himself more elaborately. Though he makes himself the theme of the poem, he just uses his character to portray humanity as a whole. He says: “Divine am I inside and out,” which could imply him measuring himself up to God. But two lines later he writes that “the scent of these arm-pits aroma finer than prayer.” By comparing his arm-pit scent to prayer, Whitman seems to be ridiculing prayer rather than celebrating arm-pit scent. In the same way he is not measuring himself up to God, but is merely making a point that man does not need a God to have the truth and does not need to pray to find the answers. Man is perfectly capable himself to think with his own mind, without conforming to that of a religion. By saying that he is capable, everyone else is capable too, because he is no better than anyone else.