Pablo Neruda gives us a good example of Vanguard Literature in his poem WalkingAround. We can see the influence of surrealism in the poem because it does notrhyme at all, instead is an effort to express feelings and emotions in a freestyle. We can also see the existentialism idea as Neruda is bold and tells useverything that is in his mind. Neruda tells us what he thinks about society ingeneral.
In this poem we can see that Neruda is tired of technology, he saysthat he no longer desires to see elevators, or merchandise, or movie theaters. He is tired of all the new inventions humans have made. He is tired of seeingthe same things over and over again wherever he goes. Same shoe shops, samestores, etc. In my opinion, he thinks that we have lost our individuality andthat we all own the exact same artifacts and we all want to have whatevereveryone else has. I also think that he’s sorry that humans cannot appreciatethe beauty of nature, and are polluting it with factories, buildings, and alike.
Neruda grew up in the wilderness, and I think that he misses the wild landscapesand the fresh air he used to breath when he was a boy. The line that confused mewas when he says that it would be “delicious to kill a nun. ” I thoughtthat because of his experience of loosing a friend during war, he would beagainst any kind of violence. But, I then I thought that since existentialismconsists of an active role of the will, and not the reason, Neruda was justbeing spontaneous.
He probably was just trying to get out all that he felt, evenif this meant going to the extremes. Neruda was probably disappointed of the newinventions, and the destruction of nature and man itself. This poem clearlyshows that Neruda is tired of living in the world around him.
