Im Nobody Who Are You Analysis

Whether someone is a nobody or a somebody, everyone is a follower, but the decision to follow the crowd or the heart is theirs. “I'm Nobody! Who are you?” is a poem written by Emily Dickinson about the two categories of people in the world: nobodies and Somebodies. A somebody is someone who chases the crowd or the trend. Somebodies always want to blend in with those around them. Whereas, a nobody is someone who only pursues his/her’s heart. Nobodies want to stand out and be unique, but they are shunned and looked down on for being different. The disheartening reality is that today rather than being themselves, majority of people yearn to be more like somebody else.
Most of the population consists of Somebodies. In the beginning

Emily Dickinson tells the reader that she’s a nobody, then goes on to ask the reader who he/she is: “Are – you – Nobody – too?”(1). She then assumes that the reader said yes, and creates a unity between them by telling the reader that, “there’s a pair of us!”(Dickinson, 3). However, she also warns the reader no to tell their secret. If the reader did tell, then the Somebodies might come to “advertise” them, eventually turning them into Somebodies as well (Dickinson, 4). Furthermore, in the second stanza Emily Dickinson explains her thoughts about Somebodies: “How dreary – to be – somebody!”(5). Here she’s emphasizing that unlike a nobody’s life, the life of a somebody is “dreary” meaning bleak and lifeless (Dickinson, 5). Dickenson then goes on to elaborate why: “How public – like a Frog – To tell one’s name – the livelong June – To an admiring Bog!”(6-8). Somebodies have to always be in the “public” announcing themselves to the world, and broadcasting everything about themselves and how great they are (Dickinson, 6). The truth that nobody knows is that even though the Somebodies feel that they are doing what they feel is right, they don’t know that they are trapped in an opaque web that they can never escape from.
Somebodies don’t pay attention to the bigger picture, and don’t realize that they are trapped until it’s too late.

EE Cummings once declared, “In a world that does its best to turn you into something you are not, the hardest battle to fight is to remain true to yourself – and never stop fighting.” The world is made up mostly of Somebodies, and they are always looking for others to become like them. It is a contagious disease that steals the originality of a person and replaces it with an imposter. It plays on a person’s self-esteem and destroys their true identity. It is a war that has to be fought and won each and every day, but most give up after a few insignificant battles. A poet named Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe once voiced, “Everybody wants to be somebody; nobody wants to grow.” The Somebodies are always caught up on trying to be someone else. They stay with the trend and do whatever it tells them to. The downside is that they don’t have the time or courage to grow their individuality like they were meant to. The Somebodies are blind to this and slowly disappear into the crowd as if they never truly were a single individual.
In the world today, there are more Somebodies, than nobodies. From afar it may look as if the world is ruled by Somebodies, but it’s actually the nobodies who work behind the scenes to keep the world spinning. Only the nobodies know that individuality is a special trait that everyone has. The Somebodies just chose to leave their originality for something artificial. Besides if we were all supposed to blend into each other, there is no reason for such a thing called diversity to

exist.