Howl Allen Ginsberg's Analysis

Allen Ginsberg’s revolutionary poem, Howl, is a powerful portrayal of life degraded. It represents the harsh life of the beat generation and chronicles the struggles of the repressed. Howl is a poem of destruction. Destruction of mind, body, and soul through the oppression of the individual. Using powerful diction, Allen Ginsberg describes this abolition of life and its implications through our human understanding of abstractions like Time, Eternity, and self. The poem’s jumbled phrasing and drastic emotion seems to correspond with the minds of the people it describes. Ginsberg uses surprisingly precise and purposeful writing to weave the complex

Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl” is a thought-provoking piece used to epitomize and give a voice the Beat Movement of the mid-20th century as they sought to reject nearly every aspect of society. Within his writing, he is quite literally “howling” his frustration regarding the conformism plaguing the population and seeks to abolish that by showing and protesting the havoc it has wreaked on even the best, most brilliant minds of his time. In what became an early forerunner to more modern calls for non-conformist action, Ginsberg employs vivid imagery, anaphora, and allusion to convey his message in the mind’s eye of his readers. A key literary device used by Ginsberg is imagery, which he utilizes to trigger the reader’s senses and foster a more holistic understanding of his writing by helping them to develop their

Allen Ginsberg dedicates the entire third part of his epic poem, exclaiming his loyalty, to his dear friend, Carl Solomon. The third part of Howl is an example of loyalty that Beatnik artists and intellects have towards one another. In a small community like the Beatniks, it is sensible to be loyal to those whom one can truly trust and connect with as there are more who will challenge you than stand by you. So, it is crucial to hold on to those who share in your successes and tribulations with an open mind and open heart.

In William Blake’s Marriage of Heaven and Hell, he declares that "the road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom…Those who restrain desire, do so because theirs is weak enough to be restrained." These beliefs are reiterated and expanded upon in both Toni Morrison’s novel Sula and Allen Ginsberg’s epic poem Howl. Both authors challenge the conception of socially imposed boundaries, which suppress the absolute freedom of thought and action, by venerating the human characteristic of excess. Instead of abiding by the social norms of the general cultural animosity towards excess, Morrison and Ginsberg use this vilified "attribute" as a means to transcend the aforementioned

The life and times of Allen Ginsberg is given a breath of fresh air with Director John Krokia exploring the relationship between Ginsberg and his asphyxiating, enigmatic classmate, Lucian Carr. A relationship formerly unexplored in the two previous beat generation films that fell flat including Howl (2010) and On the

Where you were sick of the Tiffany-twisted minds, Mercedes bends, and the pretty pretty faces.

Allen Ginsberg in his work, “Howl” tries to present a social commentary and a revolution. Allen presents the struggle of the time when social pressures were quickly building up, and a revolution was necessary which would free people from all forms of oppression. Allen presents his experiences which is an encounter with his friend whom he met in a mental institution. Allen uses several literary techniques to present the insanities in life and how people continue to struggle with it in life which ends up in tragedies and cries.

In the poem Howl, Allen Ginsberg challenges the modernity of American culture, which enforces the “best minds” (1) to give up their freedom to conform to the desired sense of normality. Ginsberg states “I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked/ dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix” (9). His expression of Moloch The angry fix is what all of these “best minds” look for after being stripped of their freedom to conform to the new American culture after World War II.

Becoming the same as everybody else is a dull concept, and not exactly favorable to anybody. Despite, or in lieu of, our best interests, humans ensure that there is something distinguishably unique in each of us. However, behaving without manner or class just to be unique runs parallel with the actions of juvenile delinquents. Allen Ginsberg, revered author of Howl and its ingenuity, covers various themes in his illustrious poem, including madness, sex, drugs, and the corruption of the government. Although some view the poem as an enlightening artwork of protest, Howl is an archaic disappointment deserving none of its critical acclaim.

In conclusion, Allen Ginsberg was the core of the beat poet generation where freedom and spontaneous practices were celebrated. With his creation of Howl he articulated his insights of mental institutions and how they limited the pure talent in patients by restricting their freedom of expression. These controversy dates back to the 1950’s yet is still very much alive in the 21st

Allen Ginsberg’s HOWL – Offending Content, Sincere Meaning Allen Ginsberg, a famous poet who dealt with homosexuality and mental instability at the time of the 1950s, seems to have incorporated the main aspects of his life through his well-known poem, “HOWL.” Mainly focusing on his experiences and his journey through life, Ginsberg, as he appears through his words, seems to be riding some twisted, windy rollercoaster that takes him from one state of being to another. Going more in depth and actually categorizing the different parts to this rollercoaster that is his life, his readers are able to clearly see how he transitions through his existence. Mostly covering his miserable experiences throughout the poem, Ginsberg later shares his acceptance of his journey through his Footnote. Ginsberg’s Footnote has an important purpose in the poem “HOWL” because it provides a possible resolution to the conflict between the

Ginsberg’s work often represents a struggle for spiritual survival in a dehumanized, repressive society. This can be seen in his writing of “Howl”:

Allen Ginsberg, one of the most innovative poets of the age, characterized his poetry as the “desire to be [...] in a time of apathy” (Tytell, 313). Howl, Ginsberg’s most esteemed piece of work, surprised the majority of readers due to its vulgarity and explicit content. The urban settings across the United States greatly influence beatniks in writing about the environment of post World War II. This new mindset of free spirit allowed Ginsberg to explore new, but vulnerable subjects that may cause one to cringe. The literary experience present in Howl “allow[ed] an individual to discover his own vulnerability, his humanness, without cowering” (Tytell, 313). This was an important theme that encourage artistic development in the midst of conformity and bleakness. In the first line of his poem, he mentions how he saw “ the best minds of [his] generation destroyed by [the] madness” (ln 1) of materialism and pressure of technological advancement. The free spirited lifestyle that hipsters promoted distracted many authors and writers into getting hooked on drugs, sex and alcohol, which are main topics Ginsberg discusses throughout the poem. Through his writings, Ginsberg strives to “exorcise the shame, guilt and far that he [saw] as barriers to self-realization and total being” (Tytell 312), placing great emphasis on individuality. Poets like Ginsberg were responsible for the revival of creative potency in an age of silence. For example, Howls presents a range of tones ranging from severe anguish to uncontainable excitement. This literary aspect of his poems provided a way for readers “to retain the ability to feel in numbing times [...] in the face of materialistic culture” (Tytell 313). The bizarre breed of hipsters and the Beatnik writers who found literary ways of bringing their dull societies back to life were ready to cure, what Ginsberg saw

‘’Howl’’ was a poem written by Allen Ginsberg in 1956. For us to understand the poem it is necessary for us to understand the history behind the poem. ‘’ Howl ‘’ was published in 1956, right after the devastating World War II. After WWII that’s when the American dream was in full force throughout the whole world. Many Immigrants were trying to migrate to the US at that time for a better living. At the same time media was becoming big and powerful gaining trust from citizens while television was on its peak being the most important part of the media growth as it exported an immense number news to consumers. While Americans were busy with the new experience of having, news transmitted to them on the comfort of their houses, others worked hard to get a movement started, from the streets, to the bars at night. A group of poets would gather together to express their arts of literature written by them. Ginsberg’s ‘’ Howl ‘’ was Beat generation’s first heartbeat, as the poem was first performed at Six Gallery in San Francisco in 1955 it was the moment when Beat generation was built. As the poem was published in 1955 with the City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco, the poem was considered one of the best American poem to be performed. The members of that movement were professional writers although ‘’Howl’’ was the first foremost Beat generation work to be printed. The beat generation style of writing was something different that nobody had the guts

Allen Ginsberg dives into the wreck of himself and of the world around him to salvage himself and something worth saving of the world. In this process, he composes Howl to create a new way of observation for life through the expression of counterculture. Protesting against technocracy, sex and revealing sexuality, psychedelic drugs, visionary experience, breaking the conventions of arts and literature; all basic characteristics of counterculture are combined and celebrated in Howl, as it becomes `a counterculture manifesto' for the first time. Howl elaborates the results of technocracy, as it mechanizes the human soul, human creativity. Technocracy takes away the emotion, feeling, random