The Beat Generation explored and influenced American culture through the authors literature. Walt Whitman said, “Resist much, Obey little” (Reynolds, 205) which is quoted from Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass. Whitman believed highly in his philosophy of life and humanity. He believed in mans individual identity, which is distinct to ones self. This quote contrasted Allen Ginsberg’s poem “A Supermarket in California” which portrayed American conformity within a capitalistic society. Ginsberg used imagery to portray America’s capitalism commodity fetishism resulting in a loss of individualism.
Ginsberg wrote “for I walked down the side streets under the trees, with a headache self cautious looking at the full moon. In my hungry fatigue
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Wives in the avocados, babies in the tomatoes—“ (Ginsberg, 674) which referenced a newly formed divide between individuals and their families. Whitman identified a family as a unified group but in the poem the image of family refers to separate individuals residing under one roof. A separation within families is a common standard in Ginsberg’s America. This separation shows the instability caused by changing the conventional family roles and dissolving the family unit. It also reflected the loneliness of Allen Ginsberg who is separated from the roles these individuals are playing in the family structure. This is shown my Ginsberg's realization that he is all alone, childless with all of these families. Ginsberg quoted “Will we walk all night through solitary streets?” (Ginsberg, 674). This quote created an image of a society that is existing alone, clueless to the separation that is caused by a loss of self meaning. This quote represents Ginsberg's feeling of being alone in society as well as the population’s loss of individuality. This loss of individuality is prevalent in the solitary streets, describing families existing together but existing alone. Ginsberg’s also associated his homosexuality with loneliness. By not conforming to the ideal american lifestyle of having a wife and kids, you will be a “lonely old grubber staring at the boys” (Ginsberg, 674) like Walt Whitman. Ginsberg gave the impression that there is a set of rules to conform to and if you are outside the commonality you are unimportant. Ginsberg could have been described as just a lonely man wandering the streets at night with no sense of purpose. Ginsberg also references this idea by stating “ “I saw you Walt Whitman… poking among the meats in the refrigerator and eyeing the grocery boys” (Ginsberg, 674). This associated Ginsberg’s idea that conforming to this way of living degraded an individual. Whitman who was a strong believer in equal rights
Throughout the words and the lives of the Beat Generation, one theme is apparent: America, everywhere from Allen Ginsberg’s “America,” to Jack Kerouac’s love for Thomas Wolfe. Although the views of America differ, they all find some reason to focus in on this land. Ginsberg, in his poem “America,” makes a point that not many of us can see as obvious: “It occurs to me that I am America. I am talking to myself again.” Each and every one of us make up America, and when we complain about something that is wrong, we are complaining about ourselves. Being raised by his mother as a Communist, and being homosexual, Ginsberg found many things wrong with America, and he does his fare share of complaining, but at the end he decides, “America I’m putting my queer shoulder to the wheel.” Ginsberg didn’t want to sit and watch everything go wrong. He was going to do something, despite the fact that he was not the ideal American.
... Without the authors William Burroughs, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Allen Ginsberg, and Jack Kerouac, the Beats would not have been nearly as memorable. Their views on homosexuality, drugs, religion, and politics were considered radical and even revolutionary for the time period. It gave them a longevity that would only be matched by the restless individuals of the 1960s individuals influenced directly by the Beat philosophy. The Beat Generation single-handedly paved the path to future waves of counter-culture.
Tytell, John. "The Beat Generation and the Continuing American Revolution". American Scholar 42 (1973): 308-317.
Throughout their fun and crazy adventure, they realize more what the world has to offer, opening their realistic minds. At this part of the poem, he begins to sound frustrated, confused, questioning the status quo. By line 65 and beyond, he begins talking about the time he spent in a psychiatric ward. Ginsberg wants people to know that someone like him, whose mind wandered over life’s truths, ends up at a madhouse. Why? Because he practiced Dadaism, a artistic art movement that opposed social, political, and cultural values, when he threw potato salad at a professor in CCNY. At this psychiatric ward, he was introduced to many therapies such as ping pong, shock therapy, and hydrotherapy. Also, his close friend, Carl Solomon, and Ginsberg’s mother was in a psychiatric ward, blamed for their insanity. For this, Ginsberg grew angry at
Allen Ginsberg confessed the intention to “defy the system of academic poetry, official reviews, New York publishing machinery, national sobriety and generally accepted standards to good taste” (qtd. in Tyler Hoffman 128). These were the poet’s answers to decay and disillusion. The technique used to deny the tradition was similar to the Dadaist approach by using spontaneity as a method of composition. Ginsberg, being part of the Beat movement, tried to establish a new tradition, and a new perspective regarding the world, all carefully wrapped in a less academic view. They had “A profound love of poetry, a belief in the vitality and integrity of
American poetry, unlike other nations’ poetry, is still in the nascent stage because of the absence of a history in comparison to other nations’ poetry humming with matured voices. Nevertheless, in the past century, American poetry has received the recognition it deserves from the creative poetic compositions of Walt Whitman, who has been called “the father of American poetry.” His dynamic style and uncommon content is well exhibited in his famous poem “Song of Myself,” giving a direction to the American writers of posterity. In addition, his distinct use of the line and breath has had a huge impression on the compositions of a number of poets, especially on the works of the present-day poet Allen Ginsberg, whose debatable poem “Howl” reverberates with the traits of Whitman’s poetry. Nevertheless, while the form and content of “Howl” may have been impressed by “Song of Myself,” Ginsberg’s poem expresses a change from Whitman’s use of the line, his first-person recital, and his vision of America. As Whitman’s seamless lines are open-ended, speaking the voice of a universal speaker presenting a positive outlook of America, Ginsberg’s poem, on the contrary, uses long lines that end inward to present the uneasiness and madness that feature the vision of America that Ginsberg exhibits through the voice of a prophetic speaker.
In the mid 1940’s a movement began, a generation of writers and poets would emerge; they were called the ‘Beat Generation’. The term was first used by Jack Kerouac while talking to fellow writer John C. Holmes, in 1948, Kerouac said to him, “So I guess you might say we’re the beat generation” (What’s Beat). The ‘Beat Generation’ was a movement that influenced the next generation of young rebellious minds of the 1950’s and ‘60’s through poets and writers who did not follow the rules of society. Growing up I have always liked the poets and writers of that time, the smooth cool way they talked, the slang they used, the goat-tees and black berets they wore and their cool and casual demeanor. The writers and poets of that generation were so passionate in what they wrote, and in their resistance to conformity. Not caring to be like everyone else, instead, they sought to be the individuals that they were, not bowing to what mainstream society thought they should be. Freedom of individuality was their passion. Although it wasn’t until I was older that I really understood what they meant and stood for, the movement had a deeper meaning; to be yourself.
While the Beats experimented with drugs, they were more mild in their departure from the mainstream culture than the counterculture of the hippies and acid-heads . Tom Wolfe observed that, ““Kerouac was the old star. Kesey was the wild new comet form the West heading Christ knows where”” (Lytle, 4). Even though Kerouac was a major part of the Beat movement and experimented with drugs, he was not cut out for the world of LSD. When considering On the Road, Sal Paradise, does in the end return home to his mother just as Kerouac did when Neal Cassady tried to get him to join Kesey. In Howl, Allen Ginsberg laments over the deprivation of his generation. He addresses one of the roots of the problem, “Moloch whose mind is pure machinery!” (Part II, l.5). He blames the mechanization of the mind, prefer a more steeped in nature approach, drugs as bringing us closer to our own nature The ideas of the Beats echo in the ideas of the counter: a rejection of materialism, an embrace of experimentation with drugs, sexuality, and forms of expression, especially music. The change from the Beats to the Hippies was not so much a ra...
Weinrich, Regina. “The Beat Generation is About Everything”. College Literature, Winter 2000, v 27, pg 263.
Homosexuality remained illegal in most parts of America until the 1960s, but Ginsberg refused to equate his Gay identity with criminality. He wrote about his homosexuality in almost every poem that he wrote, most specifically in ‘Many Loves’ (1956) and ‘Please Master’ (1968), his paeans to his errant lover Neal Cassady. Ginsberg’s poems are full of explicit sexual detail and scatological humour, but the inclusion of such details should not be interpreted as a childish attempt to incense the prudish and the square.
Ginsberg’s “A Supermarket in California” criticizes America during the midst of the twentieth century, in which society had acquired an attitude that heavily valued the materialistic aspects of life. In order to efficiently express the speaker’s discontent with society, he paints images by using vivid detail throughout the entire poem to allow the reader to experience what the speaker experiences himself. He begins by describing the setting on the streets of California, “I walked down the sidestreets under the trees./. looking at the full moon” (2-3) and had thoughts of Walt Whitman, a nineteenth century poet whom Ginsberg deeply admired. The setting is essential as it describes the two worlds in which the speaker lives; one represented by the metropolitan landscape of downtown California and another represented by nature, which the speaker longs to be a part of.... ... middle of paper ... ...
The Beat Generation was an influence on the American society during the twentieth century on how they portrayed the way of the American dream through performing arts. It all began in the 1950’s where a bunch of writers got together to right about how much they resented the postwar society (Sterritt, 1). It was right after War World II had past and the postwar age was very unsettling for the beat writers. It was turning into a conservative lifestyle and the beats wanted a way of showing that there writings would make an impact of what and how they thought of society and postwar. They too, like many others were effected greatly by the war and wanted a way of rebelling towards all the pain they went through during the war. This began the introduction of the Beat Generation.
Analyzing literature is a multi-step process that requires much more consideration and dedication than a single read. Although many people believe they can find the meaning of literary writing by defining terms and combining them with his or her own interpretation, analysis goes much further. Understanding the true meaning of an author’s work requires you to research the author and his or her intentions, enhance your background knowledge of the subject of the work, and realize its historical significance. A Supermarket in California by Allen Ginsberg is a remarkable poem that was written in the 1950s, with far more meaning than meets the eye. At first glance, it seems as though this poem is about a man strolling through the night who, in hunger,
Loneliness is a reoccurring theme in all types of literature. “Eleanor Rigby,'; by John Lennon and Paul McCartney is a fine example of the theme of loneliness in poetry. The two characters in "Eleanor Rigby" are compared by their loneliness through the extensive use of symbols.
The 1950’s beatniks gather around coffeeshops, writing and grumbling about the unfairness of the government and society’s closed mind. Today, youth gather around their laptops and type away, despairing over the unfairness of the government and society’s closed mind. Allen Ginsberg’s poetry embodies those angry youth. His unique choices in diction, symbolism and imagery artfully conveys his criticism against the wrongdoings of Uncle Sam and his subjects. Through his poem America, Ginsberg reaches out to all generations of people and exposes the ethical mistakes that both the government and society as a whole make, and these mistakes are classic in the sense that it is always a mistake that everyone keeps repeating.