emily dickinson, "I am nobody"?

Question

hey, im writing a paper and i have 1 question.

why does Dickinson think that being a "nobody" is a good thing and why does she think being a "somebody" and being in the "public" are detrimental to human individuality?

Answer 1

That's so weird. I was just thinking of this poem yesterday...

She thinks that people are mostly idiots, so she'd rather be anonymous than well known so she wouldn't have to deal with them.

Answer 2

In private, you have freedom to think beyond accepted values. You can point out, as Dickinson often does, that what is said publicly about death and god, for instance, is inconsistent and illogical. A public person, on the other hand, is constrained to observe accepted social boundaries in the way he or she criticizes the popular or accepted view of things. As you can see listening to politicians today, they mostly just recite slogans from the public debate on CNN or Fox without really going very deeply into what is being said. Somebody pointed out recently that according to polls it would be more likely for an African American to be elected president than an atheist. You notice how all of the candidates have to claim to have a childish kind of faith in organized religion when their actual beliefs are probably much more complex and interesting. That is the sort of detriment she was talking about.

Answer 3

My interpretation of this poem consist of a double meaning. In her words, although she is a "nobody" to society, she still retains her individuality and her privacy( mainly because Dickinson was very introverted). Also, in private she could release her introverted state and express who she really is, and hide from a society who are against people who deviate, which is also expressed in the last two lines of the first stanza.

However, during the second stanza, she expresses the drawbacks of being a "somebody" in her eyes. In my interpretation,an "somebody" is normally someone who conforms to things that are in vogue, therefore losing their individuality. Moreover, due to Dickinson's introverted state , she was afraid of being a "somebody" subduing of who she really was in the inside, provoking feelings of fear in her.

Hope this helps.

Answer 4

being a somebody is burdensome since you owe allegiance to public expectations whims and wishes.
Being a nobody does not non-identity but being in control of oneself without being a prisoner of societal norms and expectations. Being a nobody means resisting identity imposed from without, it implies being somebody who chooses his/her own sense of self without blindly following "the unthinking sheep-like majority" as some existentialist philosopher put it! That is why I have attached the name under my Profile - to join e.d. in transgressing society's forced identity.
Are you ready to be a nobody too?
Do not whisper that since society wants us stamped/forced to adhere to its precepts thus suffocating our genuine existential individual freedoms.

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Answer 5

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