A Quest for Order: Wallace Stevens and Emile Durkheim

To more fully understand Stevens' poem "The Idea of Order at Key West," one can look at the ideas of the poem in context of social-philosophical thought. Emile Durkheim's theories on religion closely parallel those of Stevens. Both men believe that there is no supreme greater being, or God, that gives things order and meaning. But both men also believe that humans need to read order and meaning into the world to understand it, even if the meaning humans imply is false because there is no God. Since this aspect of both men's ideas is so similar, Durkheim's outline of ideas on religion can form a model by which Stevens' poem can be analyzed. Furthermore, although there is no way to prove that Steven's poem is based on Durkheim's ideas, there are enough similarities that the two sets of ideas can be compared.
Both Stevens and Durkheim believe that humans read order into the world to aid in understanding. In general, Durkheim believed that humans create religion as a way to give events meaning and explain why things happen. In "Origin of the Idea of the Totemic Principle," Durkheim elaborates on these ideas.
Men know well that they are acted upon, but they do not know by whom. So they must invent by themselves the idea of these powers with which they feel themselves in connection, and from that, we are able to catch a glimpse of the way by which they are led to represent them under forms that are really foreign to their nature and to transfigure them by thought. (172)
The idea that society, which is created by people, can in turn act upon people is a difficult concept for humans to grasp. Instead, it is easier for humans to realize that actions happen by forces external to themselves and attribute these forces to a supreme being or a god.
Stevens also establishes that humans naturally read order into the world and that it is inevitable because it is necessary for understanding. Like Durkheim stated, the human mind better grasps things that are reflected through... [continues]

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