Tone Of Howl By Allen Ginsberg

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

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

Ginsberg’s use of anaphora forces us to question the historical origins of both social afflictions and collective resistance in Howl, this blurring of the poet’s central objects of identification implies that his lamentation for the madness of his own generation is also a lamentation for the blighted hopes and wasted intellects of their precursors (384).

Allen Ginsberg's Howl portrays many different metaphors, images, and analogy's to explain his perception of the 1950s. Howl is divided into three segments all having a different tone, style, and significance. The first segment introduces his belief on his generation, the second explains why his generation remained dreadful and the third is a series of personal metaphors with an assumed friend of his. The three segments can easily remind one of the transcendentalism movement, which is based on individualism and nonconformity.

The 1950s was a decade of extremes and abrupt change where the inhabitants of one of the most robust nations were led to their most vulnerable states, shuddering in fear of Communist tactics as a result of the immense Cold War tensions, lingering in the atmosphere from mainstream media and technological advances. Eliot Katz, author of Poetry and Politics of Allen Ginsberg, highlights Ginsberg’s political impact “[i]n an era filled with too much military conflict, regressive economic policies, and the backsliding of civil liberties, the legacy of Allen Ginsberg [will remain] as important as ever,” (12). Rebellious revolutionary, avid activist, and insightful poet, Allen Ginsberg, wrote and published radical works of poetry during his lifetime,

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

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.

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.

Allen Ginsberg’s poem, Howl, deals with a group of people he considers geniuses that became insane, how they ended up insane, and a message to his close friend, Carl Solomon. The poem presents these ideas in three separate sections starting with the group of geniuses. In this section. Ginsberg tells us who these geniuses are and we discover that they are not doctors or lawyers, but drug users, prayers, the poor, and even artists. Section two tells us what drove these people insane and that is Moloch, a sacrificial god. Finally, the last section tells us about Ginsberg’s close friend, Carl Solomon, and their time together in a psychiatric hospital. Allen Ginsberg blames Moloch for driving these geniuses insane, but never clearly states what

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.

“I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked”, In this quote from Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl”, I don’t see a social commentary from one of my favorite poems, I don’t see Ginsberg’s observation of the destructive qualities: war, society, government, and capitalism on these outcasts, these drug users¬¬--drop outs, musicians, and poets, the disregarded yet “the best minds of my generation”. No. In this line I see my grandmother. I see her transform from one of the strongest willed and independent woman I’ve ever known, to a person stuck in a nursing home that doesn’t even realize that they’ve worn the same clothes for three days straight. I see one of the greatest minds of my generation, my life, destroyed

One which valued conformity, the working world, doing your part for the country, and the idea that life should work like a swiss watch. The individual was expected to become part of the system that represents the American dream. Much of which meant materialistic ideologies, and a traditional Christian religious belief. This meant many guidelines to be tip-toed around. This expectation became a detriment to American living and it was because of those individuals who desired creativity and true freedom, and essentially had the means to awake the cultural uprising known as the Beat Generation.

Therefore, in the very beginning, Ginsberg presents to the reader the subject and tone of the poem in the context of this question. Ginsberg’s questions make the audience realize the seriousness of the issues that this poem discusess, such as America, politics, war, humanity, and ethics.

When Allen Ginsberg sat down at a secondhand typewriter in 1955 and began the first of his many subsequent drafts of "Howl," he had no idea of the controversy it would cause. I fact, he didn't even set out to write a formal poem and especially not one that he would consider publishing. Instead, what the 29 year old began would materialize into his most famous literary work and the cause of a much publicized trial debating the first amendment right to freedom of speech. The events of Ginsberg's life and the events going on in the world around him inspired and prepared him to write "Howl," but perhaps one of the most important factors contributing to the poem and the

What Allen Ginsberg did in 1955 was unthinkable. In the midst of McCarthyism and severe anticommunist sentiment, he wrote a poem in which he admitted having belonged to the Communist party. Yet, even more surprising was that he didn't stop there. In his poem "America," Allen Ginsberg challenges the beliefs and values that the United States has always cherished, leaving no stone unturned, and no feather unruffled. Always the cynic and revolutionary, Ginsberg slaughters the sacred cows.