Reading Franklin Evans seemed different at first. After reading Leaves of grass I guess it should. The way the book is written causes confusion at first because it’s not a poem. It’s a collection of short stories written in sequence to read like a story. The story about one man and everything that happens to him because of his need for alcohol.

What caught my attention at first was the fact that Walt Whitman started the story by not telling you Franklin Evans age. I suppose he did that to reach all age groups. If he would’ve mentioned an age, whoever wasn’t in that age group would probably think that his message wasn’t meant for them. Then Whitman begins every chapter with a poem, that actually tells you what that particular story is about. It seemed like he was baiting you, the reader to want to know more maybe. Once you read the poem, you actually ask yourself, “What does this have to do with this story?”. I found myself reading to figure out the significance.

The book was written to teach a lesson. Around the time Walt Whitman wrote Franklin Evans Brooklyn was going through major changes. Its’ people were in and out of work, not enough money, children to feed, issues on how to run Brooklyn, manage the large rush of people moving in, people did what they usually do when times are bad, THEY DRINK! Whitman not only saw it, he participated, which gave him a good insight on how how people behave once intoxicated. He saw first hand what it did to people and their families that he decided to write about it hoping to save some from self destruction and family destruction.

Whitman claimed he wrote the novel while intoxicated. He might have. Sometime you find yourself in a bad way, and need a way to let the pain out. Maybe this was a bad time for Whitman, I can not say for sure but he wrote this novel, he says, to teach intemperance. He might of wrote it for forgiveness also.

I found the paper that Franklin Evans was first published. I thought that everyone would like to see it. This novel was originally written in the paper, not as a book. If you haven’t read it, check it out. It’s interesting, seems different but to me sounds like Whitman. It’s risky writing with a twist.

 Franklin Evans Chapter IV Page 24 1^st Paragraph

“When I arose the next morning, and thought over in my mind what it would be better for me to do first, I saw that it was necessary to provide myself with a boarding-house. After breakfast, I crossed the ferry, and purchasing a paper of one of the news-boys, for a penny, I looked over to the column containing advertisements of the places similar to what I wished. I was somewhat surprised to find that every one had the most “airy, delightful location,” the very “best accommodations,” with “pleasant rooms,” and “all the comforts of a home.”Some of them informed the reader that there were “no children in the house.”  These I passed over, determining not to go there; for I loved the lively prattle of children, and was not annoyed as some people pretend to be, by their little frailties.”

                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.

In the course of the evening some little incidents happened, which served as a proof of the truth of the old proverb, which declares that glittering things may not be of the value they seem. It happened thus. Colby and myself, accompanied by a friend of my friend’s, whom we met at the drinking-room, determined to go to the theatre that evening, and accordingly did so. The house was crowded. Beautiful women and elegant men—moustached dandies and lively youth—brilliant fashionables of all varieties, combined to render the scene exhilarating and splendid. And the music from the orchestra, now soft and subdued, now bursting out with notes of thunder—how delicious it glided into the ear! The curtain drew up and the play began.It was oneof those flippant affairs, that pretend to give a picture of society and manners among the exclusive. The plot worse than meager—the truthfulness of the scene a gag, which ought not to have excited aught but ridicule—the most nauseous kind of mock aristocracy tinging the dialogue from beginning to end—yet it was received with applause, and at the conclusion, with vociferous and repeated cheers! The manager had printed upon his bills that London was pleased with it, and that one of the scenes represented life as in the private parlor of an English Duke—with the curtains, carpets, and drapery of the parlor, as good as real! I blushed for the good sense of my countrymen.

(Franklin Evans 31)