Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Sherman Alexie's "Defending Walt Whitman" masterfully employs the backdrop of basketball as a vivid allegory to explore complex issues of identity, tradition, and culture among young Native Americans. The poem not only details a physical game but also delves into the dynamics of tradition and modernity, infusing these elements with layers of meaning.

The very first line paints basketball as an embodiment of youthful physicality, "all arms and legs and serious stomach muscles." This description stands in contrast to the image of Walt Whitman, the 19th-century American poet often associated with the transcendental experience of body and soul. Alexie uses Whitman to represent the embodiment of white America's poetic heritage, contrasting that with the visceral, raw energy of young Native Americans.

One of the most intriguing aspects of the poem is its assertion that these young Native Americans are "the twentieth-century warriors who will never kill." This line is replete with irony when we consider that basketball-a peaceful game-is being referred to as a war-like event. It serves as a commentary on the way modernity has repurposed traditional notions of bravery and battle, encapsulating them in more contemporary, non-violent expressions. Yet these youths are still imbued with the spirit of warriors, a point further elaborated by the mention of some having "sat quietly in the deserts of Kuwait, waiting for orders to do something, to do something."

Whitman is portrayed as an observer and a participant, a figure who is both in and out of sync with his surroundings. He stretches his "calf muscles on the sidelines," awaiting his turn, but his "huge beard is ridiculous on the reservation." Alexie plays with this dissonance, painting Whitman as a simultaneously alien and integral part of the reservation basketball court.

When Whitman finally catches the ball, he experiences the world through it, "breathing in all its smells: leather, brown skin, sweat, black hair, burning oil, twisted ankle, long drink of warm water, gunpowder, pine tree." In this moment, the ball serves as a nexus of experiences, linking disparate elements that constitute both the immediate environment and the broader history of the Native American community. It's as though the act of playing basketball sublimates all these various elements into a single, unified experience that is both a game and much more than a game.

The poem wraps with Whitman "standing at center court," unable to distinguish "between offense and defense," but that doesn't matter. He is caught in the whirl of energy, amid young bodies that are mostly brown, a living testament to the community's vitality. This disorientation, Alexie suggests, is the poet's way into a culture and a way of being that he can observe but never fully grasp. However, "this game belongs to him" because he acknowledges and venerates the inherent beauty and complexity of these young Native lives.

In conclusion, "Defending Walt Whitman" goes far beyond a simple scene of a basketball game on a Native American reservation. It serves as a poignant narrative that wrestles with themes of cultural identity, historical trauma, and the adaptation of tradition in modern times. Through the lens of this communal sport, Sherman Alexie gives voice to a complex interplay of past and present, individual and collective, indigenous and foreign, capturing a moment that is both ephemeral and eternal.

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