Analysis Of A Supermarket In California

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Allen Ginsberg’s “A Supermarket in California” exhibits stark contrasts in tone. It begins downtrodden and disheartened as the speaker wanders the dark streets alone at night under the trees. The tone soon transforms, becoming more magical and whimsical as the speaker enters the “neon fruit supermarket.” By the end of the poem we experience a shift toward a more reverent tone. Ginsberg exemplifies Whitman’s influence on his own poetry, and emulates Whitman’s rambling style. (Kriszner & Mandell, 534) I intend to explore the varying tones and themes present including an adoration for Walt Whitman by the speaker and a general sense of embracing life in all its wonder in “A Supermarket in California.” Ginsberg begins “A Supermarket in California” …show more content…

These lines continue to cultivate the magical tone being generated in the “Neon Fruit Supermarket.” The way that the speaker describes the inside of the grocery store as “brilliant” and “neon” coupled with his paranoia over security following him infers that the speaker is experiencing an altered state of consciousness. Or perhaps the speaker is dreaming this entire experience.
The speaker shows a genuine affection for Whitman with the lines, “Which way does your beard point tonight? / (I touch your book and dream of our odyssey in the / supermarket and feel absurd.).” Ginsberg creates a somewhat comical and loving tone with these lines. It seems the speaker has a romantic attraction to Whitman on some level. This takes the theme of the speaker’s adoration of Whitman to new heights. “A Supermarket in California” was written in 1955 which was a turbulent era marked with a great deal of civil unrest and subjugation of personal freedoms in the name of national security. Ginsberg and his contemporaries were fed up with the societal norms that existed at the time and used their poetry and literature to express these ideas. This disdain for society is seen in the

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