Franklin Evans

                Walt Whitman’s novel, “Franklin Evans: The Inebriate,” Walt Whitman explains the dangers of addictions such as alcohol. This temperance novel which Walt Whitman openly denies as his own, I believe is a way of including the effects that alcohol had on his own life. Walt Whitman, I believe, included this information indirectly and changed the names of the characters so that he can tell his story but at the same time not embarrass his family. One of the things that I believe that sparked this temperance novel was the result and the effect he saw that alcohol had on his father that he experienced as a young boy.

            The story Walt Whitman presents his audience with this dramatic tale of a country boy that ultimately is heading on a road of destruction. Franklin, the country boy travels to the city and gets caught up in drinking alcohol. As time proceeds everything begins to crumble. Franklin eventually loses his wife, his job and his freedom, as a consequence of getting involved with a gang of thieves. Franklin after his release from prison turned to alcohol which leads him into a regrettable marriage to a Creole slave. Franklin’s wife Margaret ends up killing herself because her husband has an affair with a widow from the North, whom Margaret poisons out of a jealous rage. 

            Whitman tells people when asked about the novel, that he wrote the novel while he was intoxicated, drinking cocktails. That may be true because he is an exceptional writer. He told people not to take this novel seriously. Whitman preached and practiced the ability of temperance throughout his life. Walt Whitman was known to participate in a number of temperance movements such as the meetings and parades of the Washingtonians, who made up the older American Temperance Society. Although he denounced this novel, this was not the only Temperance tales Walt Whitman wrote.