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Abstract:
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Virtually all commentators on the work of Vachel Lindsay have seen his poetry and prose as primarily artistic and for the most part indecipherable . I have tried to show that Lindsay intended to address social construction in America . He tried to use his art to change America , first and foremost , but also the world . And the changes he wanted to enact revolved around the issues of race , religion , feminism , and temperance . Lindsay wanted to alter the racial hierarchy in America to promote a more inclusive perspective . But not to make it all inclusive . And one of the prime motivations for Lindsay's interest in race was to change his own status within the hierarchy . There was an American Indian branch to his family tree . Consequently Indians became prime candidates for social inclusion in his poetry and prose .
The Springfield race riots of 1908 represented a formative experience for Lindsay and helped propel him to a discussion of race . Lindsay claimed Springfield , Illinois as home , and the injustice and brutality of the riots shamed him and clashed with his perspective of civilized and religious advancement . In writing "The Congo ," The Art of the Moving Picture , and The Golden Book of Springfield , Lindsay saw himself as promoting racial harmony and equality . However , he intentionally promoted harmony and order at the expense of equality . I conclude my dissertation with an obseration from the sociologist Herbert Marcuse to the effect that saving oneself at the expense of others is hardly a heoic act . |