Beats as a counterculture

The Beats As A Counterculture

Many of the Beat writers wrote in a style known as spontaneous prose. Allen Ginsberg often writes in this style. He does so in the poem “Howl” in which he rants and raves about society via his friends – Jack Kerouac, Willaim S. Burroughs, Lawrence Ferlingetti, and Neil Cassidy to name a few, live. He discusses their poverty, civil disobedience, the ways that they fight society, and his personal fight against industrialization; he uses many images in order to allow the reader to understand his lifestyle, the lifestyle of his friends and points of view, specifically their rejection of society.

Ginsberg depicts the deprived environment in which he chooses to live in through imagery. For instance the speaker proclaims: “…Dragging themselves through the Negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix.”(Ginsberg 62) This is a scene depicting an average morning after a night of partying. His friends are trying to make their way back to reality. They search the streets where they have been in Jazz clubs for more drugs so they do not have to “suffer[ing] Eastern sweats and Tangerian bone grindings and migraines of China under junk-withdrawal…”(Ginsberg 63) Ginsberg is telling of his friend’s addiction and fear of withdrawal. The speaker states: “…Yakketyyakking screaming vomiting whispering facts and memories and anecdotes and eyeball kicks and shocks of hospitals and jails and wars…” (Ginsberg 63) In this passage the speaker of “Howl” depicts an insane asylum because his mother, himself and many of his friends; specifically Carl Solomon, who the poem is dedicated to, had been admitted or admitted themselves into hospitals.

The Beats were all connected to the reality of poverty. Ginsberg states: “Who poverty and tatters and hollow-eyed and high sat up smoking in the supernatural darkness of cold-water flats floating across the tops of cities contemplating jazz.”(Ginsberg 62) The obvious image of poverty is when he clearly states “poverty” but along with this image Ginsberg says “cold-water flats,” meaning that there was not enough money to have hot water. Another image of poverty is “who plunged themselves under meat trucks looking for an egg.” They were so desperate for food that they jumped under trucks in search of a single egg. The Beats chose this poverty stricken lifestyle in order to further rej...

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...e of a world that no one wants to come. He is using his own version of propaganda to persuade the reader not to support industrialization..

Ginsberg reinforces the second section with the first and third sections. He prepares the reader for a dramatic change from the first to the second section by showing the reader that he is anti-society. By showing that he and his friends are anti-society it is a logical step to say that he is against what society is planning and creating. They are planning and moving toward industrialization. Ginsberg is against industrialization partially for the reason that it is the societal norm to support it.

Howl is a poem in which Allen Ginsberg complains about his life and about society. The speaker of the poem describes that he/she and his/her friends reject society and therefore are prone to act in a manner counter to common culture. He explains his points using amazing imagery that allows the reader to see exactly what he/she is writing about. In section two Ginsberg states his complains about industrialization, which was beginning at the time. These ideas are reinforced throughout the poem. I will forever enjoy these rantings and ravings.