Neruda 07/20/2012

The City as Death and Ugliness

Pablo Neruda’s “Walking Around” portrays a bleak outlook of city life that renders the speaker “tired of being a man” (Line 1). He enters establishments “all shriveled up” (2), feeling uncomfortable and out of place. Feeling suffocated by the confines of the city, he desperately craves the comfort of “stones or of wool” (6) found in country life. The city appears as a monstrous entity which fills the speaker with loathing and disgust. He grows tired of the “establishments,” “gardens,” “merchandise,” “glasses,” and “elevators” (7-8), signifying a desire to abandon the artificial feel of the city and return to the authenticity of the pre-modernized world. 

The tone of the poem is somber and Neruda expresses overwhelming feelings of helplessness and frustration. The speaker compares himself to a “root in the dark,” stifled by the city and unable to grow or pursue his dreams. He compares his life to a “solitary tunnel” (25) and refers to “corpses,” “dying,” and “pain” (25-26) to convey a sense of extreme loneliness amidst the bustling city. 

Neruda relies heavily on the sense of smell to articulate the rancid nature of the city. He notes that the mere smell within the barber shops makes him “sob out loud” (5) and complains of shops that smell of vinegar. The putrid aromas are juxtaposed with horrific images of “intestines hanging from the doors” (34-35) and “teeth in a coffee pot” (36) which demonstrate the encompassing ugliness of his surroundings. Throughout the poem, Neruda portrays the city not as the center of life and prosperity, but rather of ugliness and death. 

Work Cited

Neruda, Pablo. “Walking Around.” The Norton Anthology of World Literature. Ed. Martin Puchner. Vol. II. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2013. 1423-1424. Print.