I chose “Howl” to examine because it describes in great detail the anger, frustration, and self-destruction of Allen’s generation. Allen felt that his generation conformed to standards and to the American culture. Thus, he uses the poem, “Howl”, to express his anger and refusal to conform to America’s standards. The title of the poem suggests themes in the poem like madness and anger toward conformity. Moreover, the title suggests the theme of expression in the form of angry words and lines. In part I of “Howl”, he states, “I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness…” (McMichael 1747). Allen is saying the best minds got destroyed because they conformed to America’s culture and standards. He describes the people who conformed to the …show more content…
For example, “who passed through universities with radiant cool eyes hallucinating Arkansas and Blake-light tragedy among the scholars of war” (McMichael 1748). This means the great minds that went through prestigious universities only went through to get a basic degree instead of staying there to gain more intelligence and success. His theme throughout part I of “Howl” is how the greatest minds lost their greatness due to conformity instead of exercising individuality. Another example is, “who walked all night with their shoes full of blood on the snowbank docks waiting for a door in the East River to open to a room full of steamheat and opium” (McMichael 1750). Allen is showing people would rather take a drug instead of using their mind and intelligence in the world. He describes these examples of people’s minds deteriorating with a lot detail. For instance, he describes people walking all night with shoes filled with blood for a drug. This shows the determination people have to get the drug. The themes in part I of “Howl” are how conformity to standards and culture destroy great minds, and the anger Allen has for people who throw their minds
In the poem Howl part one, Allen Ginsberg travels all over the world and describes his life and the “ best minds of his generation” (1) the beat poets. Ginsberg expresses his tone with emptiness, darkness, and depression. Part two; the word Moloch represents war, governments, psychiatric hospital, universities and any other social authorities. Ginsberg conveys that Moloch is responsible for war and sorrows; this ties to the first part of Ginsberg poem. In part three; “I’m with you in Rockland”, where Rockland represents the mental hospital. With the calmer tone, he addresses his friend from “Rockland” Carl Solomon. He conveys how Solomon suffers from delusions, and compares Solomon with his mother. “I’m with you in Rockland
It is a cry for the people to understand government interference, injustice, and acceptance. The poem Howl is a reflection of Allen and the beat poet’s life and adventures, but the bigger picture is the fight with the government and the idea of capitalism. Government issues will always be present in the world no matter how far the human race has come. The poem strongly argues that different is bad, and instead of the government accepting people for who they are, they contain them and try to isolate them from the world. “And who were given instead the concrete void of insulin Metrazol, electricity, hydrotherapy, psychotherapy, occupational therapy ping pong & amnesia,” (Line 67). If people were thought to be extremely different or showed signs of mental disturbance they were sent to a mental institution. In these institutions doctors gave numerous therapies to cure their patients or even lobotomize them. But Allen argued that when one was released from the institution, it is as if the people in the regular world were just as crazy or even crazier, “returning years later… to the visible madman doom of the wards of the madtowns…” (Line 69). Not only was capitalism shown in mental institutions but academic institutions as well. In the paragraph before there is quote about Allen’s trouble at school. School; a place to learn and teach would have thought to be accepting of new ideas, or loudly expressed ideas. But it wasn’t the case even
Lee notices that Ginsberg’s use of anaphora questions “the historical origins of both social afflictions and collective resistance in Howl.” The “origins of both social afflictions” and “collective resistance” stems from America’s need to impose unrealistic expectations on young people. Ginsberg idealizes America’s youth by celebrating their imperfection. Ginsberg “blurs” his “central objects of identification” by finding a connection between the insanity that Carl Solomon and Naomi Ginsberg share. The “blighted hopes and wasted intellects” of America’s past and present generation are subject to
Poet Allen Ginsberg composed "Howl" in 1955 and it was published by City Lights Books of San Francisco, CA the following year. He composed the poem in the middle of the 1950s, one of the greatest decades in history for mainstream America. It had been a decade since the American and Allied victory in the second world war. Numerous American men returned home to a country in much better shape than expected, with many women having entered the workforce to keep the economy and industry alive in their absence. The spoils of war were great and America saw a great era of prosperity and domestic, suburban bliss. More interstate highways were constructed. Many more cars were produced and bought. It was a classic era for mainstream American culture in the 1950s. Yet in the haze of the suburbs, expansion of television, growth of Hollywood, and cars, present here were the seeds of rebellion and counterculture that was more indicative of the following decade, 1960s. One such seed is the poem
Century apart, Allen Ginsberg and Walt Whitman share similar cultural, political and moral values, which they express in their literary work. Whitman’s writing is considered controversial for the eighteen hundreds. He sets the stage for generations to come breaking way from the strict Victorian poetic tradition by writing in free verse. Ginsberg follows his footsteps when composing his poem “Howl” by writing in long lines almost resembling prose and subdividing the poem into several parts. Likewise, he uses numerous repetitions to achieve rhythmicity of his verse. Ginsberg’s poem is heavily influenced by Whitman’s philosophy. The works “Song of myself” and “Howl” are similar in ideas, structure and underling themes. The two authors protest against old traditions imposed on the individual by corrupt society, stand against conformity and put emphasis on the need for change. They identify with their generation and dwell on themes such as sexuality, religion and the state of American society.
Be angered at him. Become frustrated by him. Become frustrated by his writing. Whatever response bubbles within you after reading Allen Ginsberg’s epic poem, Howl, rest uneasily as that may be due to his provocative diction and intense tone. But provocation and intensity worked to Ginsberg’s advantage.
The third part of “Howl” takes on a more redemptive tone than the previous two sections. In this section, the poet identifies with the victims of Moloch's destructive influence. The refrain of "I'm with you in Rockland," emphasizes that a supportive community among the minds "destroyed by madness," can be achieved. This is clear as after each refrain, the poem alludes to an experience which could be considered traumatic. This community, composed of support, love, and resistance, can revive a feeling of normalcy and sanity for those affected by the Moloch, and within American culture as a whole.
HOWL is a howl When feeling really emotional, sometimes we tend to find a way of expressing them and one of them is to writing it down right? Allen Ginsberg, a poet, expressed his emotions by writing poems. Reading the book HOWL was full of surprises; each poem had me feeling happy, confused, sad, and mad, etc. Allen Ginsberg’s HOWL, demonstrates his poetry based on the life with mixed emotions, vulgar language, slang words, confusion, and obscenity that evokes feelings from readers.
Emotional Bullshit Or, Something More? “Howl” the explicit, “Howl” the horrendous, and “Howl” the banned. Howl by Allen Ginsburg is the everyday life of a man and his colleagues living in a time and place where they are plagued by the isolation of society. Ginsberg was born on June 3, 1926, in Newark, New Jersey, and later became a founding father of the “Beat Generation” with his poem "Howl." The Beat Generation was a group of writers post World War II who documented events and inspired a culture.
In conclusion, it has been shown that there is a vast contrast between the myth of Andromeda and Perseus and the tales of the Once Future King and Cinderella. Although all three stories share Hourihan (1994) definition of a hero, it is the portrayal of villains that contrast these stories. Cinderella has a clear villian in the Step-Mother. She provides the Oponent Actant (2011) to the story compare this to the myth Anadromous and Perseus. The myth however does contain a villainous character in Medusa which is more than that of the Once Future King. In this tale there is no clear villainous character. Andromeda and Persues also differ in the theme to that of the Once Future King and Cinderella. Andromeda and Persues is based on love and the
In the poem Howl, Allen Ginsberg challenges the political modernity of American culture that enforces the “best minds” to give up their freedom to gain the desired sense of normalcy that is glorified. He 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” (Ginsberg 9). That angry fix that he describes is what all of these “best minds” look for after being striped of their freedom to conform to the new American culture after World War II.
In Amy Newman’s “Howl”, she alludes to Sylvia Plath, an American female poet, who is acknowledged for her hardships as a outcasted female in the poetry world due to her oppressive marriage. Newman illustrates Plath as, “[a] star-spangled lost in her housebound Eden curse with orchards and a million gossipy daffodils, writing and nursing and not on the lists...” (Newman). In Allen Ginsberg’s original “Howl” he adverts to male poets he admires of his time, opposingly Newman emulates Ginsberg’s technique and alludes to a feminist iconic poet Sylvia Plath. Newman implements a biblical allusion referencing The Garden of Eden to depict Plath as a successful female poet who was metaphorically locked in her household; where a woman's place
This poem is sometimes referred to as a violent “howl” of human anguish. It attacks the forces of conformity and mechanization that Ginsberg believed destroyed the best minds of his generation. This poem has no real structure or rational connection of ideas, and the rules of grammar are abandoned in order to pack imagery into one line. The poem points the way toward a new and better existence, chronicling the pilgrimage of the “mad generation” toward a reality that is timeless and placeless, holy and eternal.
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.
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