Charles Bukowski: Cynical Critic

Poetry as a literally work in which the expression of ideas and feelings is given strength has had great authors overtime who took different perspectives in this genre of literature. These poets used distinctive rhythm and style to express their styles, poetic themes, outlook on life, and had their share of influence on the American society. This paper uses the basis of these styles, themes, outlook on life and subsequent influence on the American society to compare three prolific poets who ventured into this literature genre: Robert Frost, Mary Oliver, and Maya Angelou. Robert Frost (1874-1963) holds a unique and almost sole position in the career span which mostly encompasses

Over the past 75 years, the American people, while reading either short stories, novels, or longer publications, have been indoctrinated with the idea of modernism. This idea, has been pushed forwards be authors in all ages, and in all forms of publication. Modernism can be described, as looking at society and culture through a lens to find criticisms and critiques of the way that we perceive it. One of the best example of modernism that has been published in the past 75 years was by Flannery O’Conner, during the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and her story “A Good Man is Hard to Find.” Flannery O’Connor throughout her short story, uses character’s and phrases to demonstrate the presence of evil in society as well as in each and every one of us.

Life, liberty, freedom, equality, opportunity, and so many other words have been used to describe the United States of America. Every American child grows up with the words “the land of the free” pounded into their heads, and every morning schools declare America as a place of “liberty and justice for all.” Such inflated rhetoric presents America with large shoes to fill. Thus, America’s shortcomings should not be surprising. Langston Hughes and Upton Sinclair were two 20th Century writers, who saw past this idealistic talk and saw the jungle that the United States really was. Langston Hughes wrote in his poem “Let America be America Again”, “Let America be America again. –Let it be the dream it used to be. –Let it be the pioneer on the plain –Seeking a home where himself is free. –(America was never America to me) (1).” He highlights not only the experience of African Americans during the 1930s, but identifies with other oppressed groups including immigrants writing, “I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek—And finding only the same old stupid plan –Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.” Likewise, Upton Sinclair conveyed his repulsion to immigrant oppression during the Industrial Revolution in his book The Jungle, emphasizing the gullibility behind trusting the grandiloquence of the American dream.

For J. Hector St. John De Crèvecoeur and Phillis Wheatley the seduction of freedom was strong enough to have a hold over them throughout their lives. They express obtaining or wanting independence through writing about certain myths of American culture and identity. This idea of unfiltered, unbiased liberty saturates images of America. Even before it officially became a gaggle of nations, North America was known as a wide-open space full of possibilities. Crèvecoeur and Wheatley want the opportunity of self-determination, but it comes easier for one and with more complications for the other. Wheatley has the added disadvantage of her race and gender, while Crèvecoeur comes to these lands with all possibilities open and within reach. These outstanding factors affect the way these two write about American identity. Crèvecoeur’s Letters of An American Farmer: What is an American and various poems by Wheatley comment on the experience of being an American and share a critique on oppression, but there is a dichotomy in their specific views of the American Dream and the Self-Made Man due to their different positions in society.

The position of US Poet Laureate is an exceptionally prestigious and challenging position to achieve, as any aspiring poet within the country is eligible. To quote the Library of Congress, the poet laureate “serves as the official lightning rod for the poetic impulse of Americans” (“About the Position”), which means that their duty is to increase the widespread national appreciation of the reading and writing of poetry, specifically those imbued with American themes. These duties as laureate are perfectly suited for Yusef Komunyakaa, who embodies all of the necessary qualities. Through jazz-infused poetry and personal experiences, Komunyakaa truly captures within his poetry what it means to be an American, and he continues to leave an impact on the world of literature both

Written in the first half of the 20th century, “Let America Be America” is a poem that documents and responds to the oppressed state of the United States, in both the past and present. The poem is a plea for a return to the original principles of freedom that our country has seemingly forgotten. Additionally, the speaker sees America as the broken home to oppressed people who have lost sight of the ultimate goal of freedom and happiness. Although America is often perceived as the “land of the free,” Langston Hughes’s poem contradicts this ideology by not only painting a vivid picture of oppression in America but also by providing a desperate hope for the future.

Poetry has a role in society, not only to serve as part of the aesthetics or of the arts. It also gives us a view of what the society is in the context of when it was written and what the author is trying to express through words. The words as a tool in poetry may seem ordinary when used in ordinary circumstance. Yet, these words can hold more emotion and thought, however brief it was presented.

O’Hara ‘reads the painting as text, rather than a static object’ reading the ‘larger painterly aesthetic generated’ by Rivers’ painting. However, O’Hara’s reading is neither simple nor direct, rather it is the result of a series of abstractions. O’Hara writes ‘on seeing’ Rivers’ painting which is ‘a version of’ Leutze’s painting, which itself is ‘based on’ a possibly fictional event in American history. These series of perspectives serve as aesthetic, historical and rhetorical frames that abstract and re-imagine the heroic figure of Washington. To best evoke this series of perspectives, O’Hara utilizes ‘Rivers’ strategies of layering, blurring and collaging totally into a verbal realm so that he may speak directly to the “subject” of the canvas’. His use of ‘our’, not only blurs the figuration of the lyric ‘I’, but it adds a layer of abstraction, the patriotic ‘our’ that is laced with sense of ownership. This ownership is not simply an ownership of the voice, but also an ownership of homosexuality alluded to through the reference of white pants, in the opening lines ‘Now that our hero has come back to us / in his white pants’ (1,2). Not only does the use of image of white pants reference Rivers’ painting, but also Leutze’s and in turn the traditional representation of Washington. O’Hara, however, uses his own historical frame to re-imagine the aesthetic meaning of

During early 20th century, American writers were influenced by the changing world of industrialization and globalization. The horrors and World War 1 and the invention of new technologies had people questioning the future of humanity. Writers and journalist used this time to voice their views and experiences during these troubling times. Henry Louis Mencken is well-known writer who had a powerful influence on America’s writing style during the 1920s. His writing style was known for it’s wit, and harsh criticism towards American social and cultural weaknesses. His essay “The Libido for the Ugly” sends the message to the reader that America needs to change its way of living because they are too content with their current ugly lifestyle.

Moral power held by literature or art has often smashed against some form of material power and censorship. For instance, books against the ideas of the Nazi regime such as Marx’s “The Communist Manifesto” were burnt in the Nazi’s book burning of 1933 and The Bible is currently banned from North Korea. Authors have therefore been pressured into finding a method to avoid the strict restrictions forced by material power. In this paper, I will argue that Philip K. Dick was able to criticize the government and the situation of America in the 1960s, without suffering consequences, thanks to the generation of a time shift in his novel and the construction of a parallel between story and history hence manipulating the line between fiction and reality.

In order to address the topic of social criticism, a satirical narrative poem would be the most appropriate for this task due to personal point of view, repetition, structure, and entertaining figurative language. I created this poem to criticize the scandals throughout the United States’ history of the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798, Indian Removal Act of 1830, Dred Scott case of 1857, Teapot Dome Scandal of 1921, the japanese internment camps during the 1940s, McCarthyism in the 1950s, George Wallace, Nixon’s Watergate of 1972, and Donald Trump. This relates to the IB goals of Part 1 seeing as the structure and content is modified for the purpose of exposing the pattern of scandals to a oblivious audience, the task’s language developed to create a urgent tone, and the meaning of the language alters according to the overall mood during that decade.

He saw the inside of most American bars, was abused as a child and had a face that was scared by pocks. Against all odds Bukowski became a renowned, but provocative, poet. The stigma created by his history and habits, is a stigma that saw Bukowski as a whoring and numb figure, but in the symbolic value of a bluebird Bukowski tries to tell us that he has a caring personality hidden deep inside him.

Charles Bukowski was an American poet, short story writer and novelist, responsible for thousands of poems in the dirty realism literacy movement and was heavily influenced by the social, cultural and economic ambience of his home city of Los Angeles. Bukowski’s childhood was marred by a violent father, who would beat him regularly, up until his teenage years. Through adolescents, Bukowski developed an awful case of acne vulgaris, which disfigured his face and made him feel like an outsider. During the great depression, his father was frequently out of work and would take out his pain and anxiety on his son. Bukowski took to drink at a young age and become a rather listless, underachiever as a means of rebellion against not only his father, but the society

Walt Whitman is considered one of the most important writers in the history of American Literature. The people of his own time called him a radical, a madman, and a pornographer. These days he is greatly appreciated and entitled as a fearless prophet of a new stage of human development. Sometimes Whitman would be in a slump and he felt that he needed to deflect the people who inquired too directly. This even meant using examples of homosexual elements in his work, as well as unbelievable stories of him having affairs with numerous women and fathering many children, unknown to him. Throughout these sorts of times W. Whitman has gone through both resentment and flattery, nevertheless showing us

The style and content of Bukowski's work was heavily influenced by the environment that surrounded him. He took classes at Los Angles City College where he missed classes. He held a job at the postal service that he absolutely despised, he did as little as possible . He went on a journey roaming the States because he wanted experience to make his writings more in depth. He looked at sex as something you do when you can't sleep. To him love was