Ginsberg And The Beat Generation

HOWL, An Rant Against America Socialism, homosexuality, anti-industry and anti-war are concepts and viewpoints that Allen Ginsberg constantly shows in his rant poem or beat poem, HOWL. This poem was written in the 1950’s, a different time when these previously listed concepts were considered anti-American. The poem also possessed many explicit words and imagery that starkly shocked the American populace in an era when the televisions were showing things like I Love Lucy and Leave it to Beaver were shown on one of the two or three channels that were available in this decade. This poem was raw, it was explicit, Allen Ginsberg held nothing back in displaying his anti-Capitalism, anti-industry, anti-institution, anti-government and pro-drug use,

The acts of disobedience and rebellion by Ginsberg and the Beat Poets prove them to be passionate yet theatrical. It is clear that Ginsberg views religion as a box that he refuses to be restricted in. His longing to be free from this institution can be described in the book 1959: The Year Everything Changed. “Ginsberg, too, saw the connection between freedom from structures in poetry and freedom from structures in all of life. The difference was that Ginsberg yearned for both freedoms” (Page 35). With the help of The Beat Poets, he is able to illustrate his spirituality and rejection from American institutions through the poem

Ginsberg addressed the inner workings of his complicated mind through his poetry, but he also inspired his readers to do so as well. Ginsberg was notorious for representing a variety of controversial issues, but he was also a part of the drug scene as a means of expanding personal exploration towards questioning the human condition. In his travels alongside his partner, Peter Orlovsky, Ginsberg was inspired by a variety of psychedelic drugs and the peaceful acceptance of Eastern religions to develop a “global consciousness” that challenged his native society (Schumacher). In the same way rock music of the counterculture combined different types of music, Ginsberg's poetry uniquely combined styles of poetry, religious influences, and drug-induced creative thought processes to question his reality living in a Christian-dominated society. One passage of “Howl” in particular reads, “I’m with

This is an example of Ginsberg’s unique way of describing a scene that he witnessed during his travels. As Ginsberg was driving he saw and experienced several of the main themes that were going on during this period of time. Jazz was a very important part of this time period and of the Beat Movement. Ginsberg mentions contemplating jazz as a way to express how important jazz was at this time in America. This period in time was also post World War 2, so there are several instances throughout the poem where Ginsberg makes references to World War 2. Towards the middle of part one Ginsberg says “listening to the crack of doom on the hydrogen jukebox”.

In the 1950’s, a new literary movement recognized as the Beat Generation influentially changed the United States with an outburst of creativity and cultural innovation. Allen Ginsberg, one of the “founders” of the Beat Generation, made a significant impact in the history of American literature. Howl, one of his great works, caught the attention of the public and immensely broadened the style of poetic writing. From end to end, Ginsberg’s work changed the standard of modern American poetry by using various tones, forms, and figurative language.

The Beat Generation is a literary movement during the 1950s that consisted of male authors including the widely known Allen Ginsberg, who explored American culture in their poems. The Beat Generation could be described as misogynistic and patriarchal due to their exclusion of women and concerns confined to only male outcasts. In Allen Ginsberg’s 1956 “Howl”, he brings his audience’s attention to male outcasts in society. In her 2015 “Howl”, a critical response to Ginsberg’s “Howl”, Amy Newman explores the oppression outcasted women endure in a male-dominated culture through the allusions of an admired female poet, Ginsberg’s original stanza form, and utilizing diction to convey a woman's perspective antithetically to Allen Ginsberg's original.

The Beat Generation began in the 1950’s with a group of writers who took part of this movement were Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Neal Cassady, Bob Dylan, and William S. Burroughs. They were a group of rebellious free thinkers as well as famous authors during their time. As time progressed into the 1960’s, these men were known as hippies. The Beat Generation was a literary movement. Their radical ways of thinking helped shape what allowed literary figures to publish. The poem “America” written by Allen Ginsberg is one of the many creative works written during the 1950’s. Ginsberg’s poem contains a free verse style, voices such as anger and hatred towards society, and themes such as materialism and The Cold War. This form of writing is what makes his literary works tie into being a

“The weight of the world/is love./under the burden of solitude,/under the burden of dissatisfaction,/the weight,/the weight we carry/is love” (Ginsberg pg.50) . A simple, yet powerful quote from Allen Ginsberg, about how one can feel so lonely, even though he is full of love. Allen Ginsberg became well known in the 20th century for his unique yet powerful poems, “Ginsberg's raw power, spiritual depth, and technical innovation were driving forces in the shift that saw American poetry in the 1950s move away from a New Critical emphasis on formal, metrical, witty, ironic, and allusive verse toward verse that was at once more personal and more political” (Iadonisi p.1). Among his amazing works is a poem entitled “Howl.” With 112 lines, thought provoking themes, obscene words, and heavy drug influences, Howl is a poem about life through the eyes of Allen Ginsberg and his best friends also known as the beat poets. In “Howl” Ginsberg portrays a world of freedom , in a society of madness, to encourage others to be themselves, and not to

In the midst of radical changes in America during the 1950s as a result of the Cold War, the Beat Generation came into existence. America in the 1950s was an age of conformity, something the Beats were against. Individuality was thrown out the window. The middle class emerged. In the suburbs, every house looked the same and everyone wanted to buy what their neighbor had and keep up with societal norms. Everyone acted the same way and shared the same beliefs as everyone else. Society in the 1950s, were “confined” to institutions in which Allen Ginsberg wrote about in the poem, Howl. In fact, he met some of his fellow beat poets at his university and a companion whom he dedicates this poem to at a psychiatric ward. His experiences at these institutions was of great influence to him as a person and as a poet.

Jack Kerouac was one of a group of young men who, immediately after the Second World War, protested against what they saw as the blandness, conformity and lack of cultural purpose of middle-class life in America. The priorities of people of their age, in the mainstream of society, were to get married, to move the suburbs, to have children and to accumulate wealth and possessions. Jack Kerouac and his friends consciously rejected this pursuit of stability and instead looked elsewhere for personal fulfillment. They were the Beats, the pioneers of a counterculture that came to be known as the Beat Generation. The Beats saw mainstream life as a prison. They wanted freedom, the freedom to pick up and go at a moments notice. This search for

Having known many friends that have gone through the feelings of isolation, I can relate to his writing. Howl is broken up into parts. These parts represent the different phases of a man’s journey out of isolation. In part one of his writing he places the reader in a chaotic setting. Sex, drugs, violence is what fills the mind of Ginsberg.

The Beat Writers and the Standups knew the power of words. Lenny Bruce said, “It’s the suppression of the word that gives it the power” (Bruce). The Beat Writers and Standups used the concept to create awareness in their audience. It may have been felt that without the language the Beats and Standups used, the message would lose its power to shock and draw attention to how seriously the respective groups were about their message. In like manner, using words and making the audience accustomed to them would make the words lose the power they have. Allen Ginsberg used language in “Howl” that was considered not only vulgar, but obscene. By use of words and phrases like “sweetened the snatches of young girls” (Ginsberg, 14) and “fucked in the ass” (Ginsberg, 13) Ginsberg was able to create images both powerful and thought provoking. The use of such strong language also allowed Ginsberg to paint equally graphic but less blatantly obscene pictures. He wrote of “rotten animals” (Ginsberg, 16) and how the “absolute heart of the poem of life butchered out” (Ginsberg, 20) to illustrate the frustration and agony of his generation. Speaking openly of homosexuality, drug use, and a discontent with mainstream society Ginsberg was able to give voice to the disenfranchised and marginalized. Kerouac wrote frankly of drug use and sex in both On the Road and Dharma Bums. William Burroughs understood the power of words. In a

After four long years of fighting in the European and Pacific theatres America needed a refreshment. This alleviation to the tension and distress came in the form of the Beat Generation. The Beat generation was a time of experimentation and discovery. People we're discovering new exciting cities such as Denver and experimenting with new drugs such as LSD. It involved a group of American writers and authors who wanted to embrace new ways of life, things that we're considered bizarre by the rest of society. They can certainly be credited with sparking the Hippie movement of the 60s and 70s. The Beat generation writers Young male adults of the Beat Generation endeavored on a ceaseless journey to satiate a desire

The Beat Generation, made up of writers, artists and misfits, was forged not long after the end of World War II. People wanted change, the old ways and traditions were slowly being neglected and social rules of that time were put into question. The Beat Generation were the ones leading the way in questioning the old rules and regulations not because they wanted to but because America wanted it. The Beat Generation was a bohemian hipster like movement that got its drive and inspiration from sexuality, drugs, booze, crazy people and situations and religions like Christianity, Judaism and Buddhism. The Beat Generation embraced creativity untouched by culture. These artists found inspiration in past and current art movements like

In and around the 1950s Allen Ginsberg, along with several other great poets interested in changing social consciousness and defying conventional writing, became known as the Beat generation. Beat poetry focuses on the battle against social conformity and literary tradition. These Beat poets, known for their unconventional lifestyle, unorthodox political views, rowdy behavior, and experimental drug use, caused a lot of controversy. In Ginsberg’s Howl and Other Poems, Ginsberg employs a particularly confrontational and crude writing style to challenge the heteronormative, nuclear driven society that promotes the marginalisation and ostracisation of minorities and individuals whose ideology does not agree with that of the rest of the nation. Ginsberg believes that American society remains gravely repressed and his writing works to challenge that. Ginsberg, along with the other poets of the beat generation, introduce all the social taboos of the time such as heterosexual as well as homosexual sex, drugs, and addiction, into their writings. Ginsberg became one of the most influential poets in literary history, preaching his personal truths and promoting the idea of breaking the mold of the idealistic nuclear American society.