Cultural Shift through the Eyes of Ginsberg and Kerouac
Brothers of the San Francisco Beat scene, Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg lived in the midst of a consumer cultural revolution, patriots of a forgotten mindset. While the regional characters of the nation were quickly being homogenized by television, Kerouac and Ginsberg wrote poetry and prose that both captured and contemplated the moment. They were contemporaries, sharing the same circle of friends and drawing from the same influences but produced works seeking divergent means to the same conceptual end. Kerouac wrote with an enlightened nostalgia, fascinated with preserving a form of the pioneer spirit of individuals and tall tales in the midst of cultural change, while Ginsberg's poetry directly criticized the shortcomings and decay of society; neither author completing the picture or the message, leaving something for the other.
American culture of the mid nineteen fifties and early sixties is described with disgust and rejection in both Kerouac's and Ginsberg's works. They bore witness to and documented a rich, variant culture homogenized and sterilized by Dial television ads and The Saturday Evening Post. Beat calls to rebellion and cancerous grey images show America on the decline and readying for revolution. In Kerouac's novel The Dharma Bums, Japhy's ideal revolutionary rejects the new developments of American culture, " refusing to subscribe to the general demand that they consume production, and therefore have to work for the privilege of consuming, all that crap they didn't really want anyway such as refrigerators, TV sets, cars, at least new fancy cars, certain hair oils and deodorants and general junk you finally always see a week later in the garage anyway, all of them imprisoned in a system of work, produce, consume..."(97). Their America was a land of mass-marketed uselessness. At a time when stores across the nation carried identical products, and everybody saw the same three channels of television, the sparkle of regional character started to evaporate. Kerouac paints his Dharma Bums as the heirs of Whitman, poetic thoughtful wanderers. Ginsberg also used Whitman to link the past to the present in the poem "A Supermarket in California", asking the bard "Will we walk all night through solitary streets? The trees add shade to shade, lights out in the houses, we'll both be lonely. / Will we stroll dreaming of the lost America of love past blue automobiles in driveways, home to our silent cottage?
Many people wish to be an animal if only for a day, just to see what it is like to be that animal. The obvious problem is that nobody knows how to turn himself into an animal. However, in T.H. White's Once and Future King, Wart has the opportunity to experience life as an animal because his tutor, Merlyn the magician, transforms him into many different animals. Of all the adventures, the most significant transformation to Wart's kingship occurs when he becomes a badger because the badger teaches Wart valuable lessons about human behavior.
Since 776 BCE, the Olympics have been a way for people of different cultures to come together and compete in friendly competition. In 1892 the first modern Olympics were held in Athens, although it had been over a thousand years since the last game it still had brought together an assortment of different religions and ethnic groups together. Many factors shaping the Olympic Games reflect the changes that have taken place in our world since the last game in 393 CE in Greece such changes include woman’s suffrage, global economy, world wars, and proving competency.
John Sinclair criticized a country that needed "Eighty-seven different brands of toothpaste" and "Millions of junky automobiles" (Takin' it to the Streets, ed. Bloom, p303). After the novelty of cars and other products wore off, some Americans began to feel that the emphasis on production was changing the character of the country. Economic prosperity had gone to America's head, and in the scramble for profit idealism had been left behind. Kafka is quoted by Richard Brautigan in his novel Trout Fishing in America as having said that "I like the Americans because they are healthy and optimistic." (Takin' it to the Streets, p280) The new generation of Americans, however, was nowhere near optimistic about the future of their country. They saw the land of the free and the home of the brave degenerating into a production line of television sets and plastic gizmos.
In the late 1950's and throughout the 1960's, a fascination with Eastern thought developed, concentrating on Zen Buddhism and Daoism. This attraction can be explained in part by the complete strangeness of these thought forms to Western ideals. Buddhism's denial of reality and Daoism's wu-wei or flowing with life were revolutionary ideas to the people of the late '50's who had been brought up with consumerism, patriotism, Christianity, and suburbia. As people began rebelling from this cookie-cutter society, Eastern thought became a tool for the revolution, denying previously indubitable truths such as reality, attachment and God. This polar opposite belief-system, though it worked well as a slap in the face for conservative America, had difficulty being accepted in it's purest totality. Many aspects were too strict, too foreign and even too conservative to fit properly with the atmosphere of revolution and freedom. Thus began the process of "domestication". In order for these belief-systems to be embraced by the revolutionaries, a sort of depurification had to take place. Writers like Kerouac and Ginsberg combined Zen Buddhism, Daoism, and forms of Tibetan mysticism with parts of Western religions to create a medley of traditions much more liberal in practice than any of it's component belief systems. This "corruption" of Eastern thought began with the inclusion of sex, drugs and even facets of Christianity and other modes of Western thought to produce a hybrid of spirituality, and ended as an accepted mode of belief among the revolutionaries in a way the purest forms of these religions never could have. Jack Kerouac in his book, The Dharma Bums, and Allen...
A very well known and unusual poet of the early 1960's Allen Ginsberg captured many supporters and friends with his literary works. Allen Ginsberg led a very atypical life, and his poems reflect his lifestyle and the lifestyle of those who influenced him. Allen's work is a reflection of his life experiences, the vast influences of his family and friends formed him into the superior poet he was.
Jack Kerouac, was born on March 12, 1922 in Lowell, Massachusetts, as the youngest of three children. Jack decided to be a writer after his brother Gerard died at the age of nine. From the life and death experience of his brother's death, and the Catholic faith of his childhood, he developed a spiritual tendency in his character that would last throughout his life. The fact that Kerouac was a spiritual "seeker," may be the most vital aspect of his life. In post WWII, Eisenhower America, Jack Kerouac came from a poor rustic industrial community to change the face of American Culture forever. He chronicled the wild rebellious culture of "the Beats" in the late 50's and early 60's, paving the way for a more accepting American Society and the tolerance of alternative lifestyles enjoyed today.
All throughout the late 1960s, Richard Brautigan experienced immense popularity. Every book he published up to the 1970s, from Trout Fishing in America, A Confederate General from Big Sur, to In Watermelon Sugar gained critical acclaim. Critics hailed Brautigan “as a fresh new voice in American literature” (Barber 4). He was adored by both readers and critics alike, and many consider his most famous book, Trout Fishing in America, to be one of the first popular representatives of postmodern literature (4). His books became cult classics among the youth generation of the time, the infamous counterculture that arose during the 1960s. This counterculture was that of the hippie youth movement, which started from the cultural values of the Beat Generation. The hippie youth movement created their own culture characterized by psychedelic rock, open sexuality and the use of hallucinogens.
After a close analysis of “America” by Tony Hoagland, the poem warns and points out the problems with our consumerism. Hoagland uses metaphors and imagery to describe the actions of American, while throwing in counteracting themes. And uses thoughts and dreams to bring in metaphors that complex the poem.
Modern Day Olympics are a huge tradition that sweeps the screens of televisions across the world. Competitors take the arena with uniforms that dawn their countries colors and designs that are meant to resemble their designated flag. For months the news is centered around the games; the preparation, the athletes, and of course the competition. Countries aren 't obsessed, they are inspired and full of pride seeing athletes from their country compete and show their incredible skill. This tradition dates back to ancient Greece where the games began. Tony Perrottet writes about the traditions of the ancient game in his book The Naked Olympics.
Analysis of Allen Ginsberg's America. 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.
...e of rhythm. It moves along with an almost musical beat that is unique to his writing. Ginsberg says, ?Kerouac was the first writer I ever met who heard his own writing, who listened to his own sentences as if they were musical, rhythmical constructions, and who could follow the sequence of the sentences that make up the paragraph as if he were listening to a jazz riff? (306). Kerouac?s love for jazz music gave him a background for flowing rhythmically in his writing. ?So it was a definite rhythmical squiggle that he was hearing when he was writing prose sentences, a funny body rhythm, a breathing rhythm, and a speech rhythm that he was conscious of when he was writing prose? (306). This rhythm made the book much more enjoyable to read, and gave his writing a superiority to others.
The prominent title of Allen Ginsberg’s poem “America” presents the poem as a political commentary. Poetic evidence supports this superficial political meaning, as the poem is presented as a dramatic monologue between the speaker and the country of America. Despite what seems to be a concrete interpretation, the poem’s meaning can in fact be destabilized through the use of a specific literary lens. Application of a psychoanalytical lens dissects the façade of activism in “America” and shows that it is actually an introspective poem delving into the speaker’s own psyche. Psychoanalytical evidence exists within the poem, and it can be readily supported by biographical evidence of the poem’s author, Allen Ginsberg. The political meaning of “America” is rendered unstable by psychoanalysis because it dissects the political dichotomies between the speaker, America, and Russia into representations of psychological insecurities and metaphors for personal and mental relationships; therefore, superficial meanings are shown to be trivial in comparison to the rich, psychological manifestations that lie beneath.
The power of poetry is in being able to communicate a message within verse. As literary critics, we should analyze and evaluate Ginsberg’s artistry to determine how he characterizes contemporary life. In “A Supermarket In California” by Allen Ginsberg, the speaker of the poem meanders through the streets and imagines he encounters Walt Whitman in a supermarket. Ginsberg harkens back to the thoughts of the transcendentalists and throughout his aimless stroll, he questions Whitman and through his questioning complicates the notion of modern America. Ginsberg uses word choice, structure, and symbols to present contemporary life as a new existence in which we are losing access to the past, which forces us to contemplate how to confront this
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,
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.