The Evolution of the Mind

Frames of mind and ideas about existence are probably not truly transmitted or passed down in an evolutionary manner, however they seem to be passed down culturally, and sometimes become apparent in a way that is parallel to reemergence in biological evolution.  Both Walt Whitman, or his narrator, in his poem Leaves of Grass, and Erik in Siri Hustvedt’s The Sorrows of an American express transcendental ideas.  Although these books were written more than a century apart, Whitman’s ideas about universality and oneness reemerge at the end of Hustvedt’s novel.  In biological evolution, physiological elements may reemerge after having lost use, especially if they were kept in an organism after not truly being successful when they originally emerged.  Similarly, in cultural evolution, a trend or idea may emerge, and then after not catching on, remain dormant until it reemerges, possibly more successful.  The idea of universality that Whitman expresses and believes in shows up again in Erik’s character after more than a century, showing proof of cultural reemergence.

Leaves of Grass plays with ideas of oneness and connectedness between people.  Whitman often talks about nature’s perfection and mankind’s connection with nature.  He connects all types of people, asking “[i]s it you that thought the President greater than you?  or the richer better off than you?  or the educated wiser than you?” (Whitman 70).  He is asking the common man, or any man, if there is something inherently greater in people whom society reveres.  Whitman’s answer would be that, no, one person is not greater than another.  We all have an inherent equality and right to happiness and peace.  In this sense, Whitman’s views are very eastern.  He believes in a oneness that conjures up ideas of nirvana or enlightenment.  Whitman finds his semi-enlightened state through nature, and other people.

In the beginning of The Sorrows of an American, Erik is often lonely.  He even sometimes speaks his feelings out loud in his apartment while he is by himself.  Erik was once married, but has been divorced since before the novel begins, and rarely speaks of the divorce or of his ex-wife.  Erik does have other people in his life, but he generally keeps his distance from them.  As a psychiatrist, Erik is obligated to keep a professional distance from his patients, and as he analyzes everybody in his life, including himself, perhaps he feels subconsciously obligated to distance himself from everyone – leaving him in a state of sad and perpetual loneliness.  Because of his loneliness, Erik always views himself as being separate.     

Upon first glance, Erik’s frame of mind is completely different from Whitman’s.  Where Whitman is one with the universe, Erik is distanced and has divided the universe into groups of people and things that he is not a part of.  Whitman’s ideas seem to have died out by Hustvedt’s novel– become extinct.  However, at the end of the novel, Erik undergoes an epiphany.  He is out in the snow and has a realization that “there is no loneliness because there is no one to be lonely” (Hustvedt 301).  Erik’s realization differs strikingly from his thinking throughout the rest of the time the reader has with him.  This sudden and quite drastic change, towards a very Whitman-esque way of thinking makes me think that Whitman’s ideas were latent in Erik and reemerged during his moment in the snow.    

If Whitman’s ideas still can be found deep under the surface of people who think in ways that seem to be so opposite of the Leaves of Grass mentality, perhaps ideas and frames of mind remain concealed for generations until they can be of use again.  In this way, cultural evolution, or evolution of the mind is not so different from biological evolution.  Whitman’s type of thinking was useful to Erik after his life of separateness and loneliness, and so the idea rose up again, reemerging from its underlying state.  Erik’s loneliness was not working for him; it was not the “fittest” mindset for him to have.  Therefore, something in Erik came up with an older idea that may serve him well.  There seems to be an evolutionary reason why this way of thinking has not completely died out, or become extinct.  Despite the generational difference between Whitman and Husvedt’s worlds, Whitman’s ideas are echoed in Husvedt’s characters, through an evolutionary link.