Ginsberg, Allen. Howl and Other Poems. San Francisco: City Light Books, 2001.
Capitalizing on Capitalizing in Ginsberg’s Howl
Ginsberg was a literary revolutionary as can be seen in his poetry. He pushed form and genre, theory and confrontation, confession and controversy right to the threshold and over the doorway of societal standards. In pushing and pushing, Ginsberg creates a new vocabulary for certain words by capitalizing them and giving them the significance of the ‘proper noun.’ By capitalizing the first letter of certain words, Ginsberg gives a solid identity to intangible things and redefines their role in a corrupted society that has destroyed the “best minds” of his generation.
Heaven, Terror, Time, Zen, Eternity, Capitalism, Absolute Reality and Space find their niche among the cities and events in section one. None of the words begin a sentence and some are used multiple times, giving them even more validity in their existence. Somewhere along the line the “best minds of [Ginsberg’s] generation” “bared their brains to Heaven,” “cowered…listening to the Terror,” in the midst of “poles…illuminating all the motionless world of Time” and “vanished into nowhere Zen,” “followed a brilliant Spaniard to converse about America and Eternity,” “burned cigarette holes in their arms protesting the narcotic tobacco haze of Capitalism,” or “were run down by the drunken taxicabs of Absolute Reality” (9-13, 16).
Despite Ginsberg’s rants towards hysteria and chaos, there is some hope in the vulnerability of men who “bared their brains to Heaven.” There is a strong sense of redemption in the Eternity that is continuously referred to page to page. This also gives the minds some validity and a sense of ownership of...
... middle of paper ...
...ey tie in with the Absolute Reality way of approaching the world. At the same time that he devalues Visions and Dreams, calling them, “the whole boatload of sensitive bullshit,” he also seems to feel that way because they have been devalued by America, rather than by be devalued in their own right (22). The few remaining capitalized words maintain that strand of hope that Ginsberg gave in section one. Even if America has devalued Dreams, Visions, and Epiphanies, they are still there for the taking in some sense.
By the third section, Ginsberg has found some middle ground and solidarity. There is hope for the destroyed minds and corrupted America. Ginsberg attaches his own meaning to these words to set up the minds vs. society and provides some eternal hope that stands outside of society’s domination and gives everyone some ultimate answers and consistency.
A key to victory this November is the unemployment rate. According to a Bloomberg National Poll conducted in March 8-11, 42% of Americans consider unemployment and jobs as “the most important issue facing the country right now” (Priorities). Although there has been 24 consecutive months of private sector employment growth, the Federal Reserve suggests that the numbers could fade in the coming months. The importance of creating more jobs cannot be stressed enough. No President in the recent era has been reelected with the unemployment rate above 7.2% (Roth). To paint a picture, in late 1982, the unemployment rate topped 10.8 under Ronald Reagan. However, about 36 months later, the rate dropped to 7.2% percent. The drastic drop in the n...
The "Poet of the New Violence" On the Poetry of Allen Ginsberg. Ed. Lewis Hyde. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1984. 29-31.
...many realities that exist within America's society and that most do not fit the typical American dream. Even those people that achieve some measure of success, as Ralph did, are often plagued by personal problems that outweigh any measure of wealth or reputation. The lie of the American dream is that it promises to fix humanity's problems with material gain – it promises happiness from things that are not capable of giving it. And so, followers are all left unfulfilled by the great American dream, left with a reality that is much different than what was so easily guaranteed. The reality that everyone experiences, whether it is the suburban soccer mom or the tired immigrant, is that the dream is mostly unachievable. The reality we think exists is only a myth – a true mythological reality.
The trip to Brooklyn didn’t turn out the way I expected this morning. I went back to Brooklyn looking for the life I had left when I went to college. My father, the Judge Albert Cohn of the New York State Supreme Court always wanted me to go away and find a life outside of Brooklyn. It meant a lot to him to have his only child to go out of Brooklyn and continue what he called his judge’s legacy. However, I always miss what I had left. Life for me has been a struggle since I became an aide for Senator Joseph McCarthy. I’m an American patriot and my job those days was to prove to the country that the State Department was full of communist infiltrators, but the Senator and I had become what the Communists and Liberals call "discredited." The Senator influence in the country’s politics had decline but my influence is still strong. I didn’t fade away as he did. I always wanted to walk the streets that I walked when I was a child one more time to reassure myself that the struggle had been worth it. I yearn when I’m alone to feel again the joy I felt when I walked by the big houses of Rugby Road on my way home after school. Walking those streets one more time, I wanted to feel Brooklyn the way it felt to me then. Like a magical kingdom. Like the Jews in the promise land after wandering in the desert for forty years. Time seems to stretch endlessly on those days; ten minutes felt more as an hour and summer felt like the whole year. Nevertheless, this time, it hadn’t worked out that way to me. The magic feeling that felt as a boy looking at those houses from the sidewalk was no longer there. It seems that my clock had stared working right again. A minute was a minute and an hour was sixty minutes as it was everywhere else. Tick, tick, tick... tick. I couldn’t stretch time again or at least not today.
...n turned upside down. I no longer view writing as a laborious chore but as a unique tool for self-exploration. I can plunge deeply into the sunken recesses of my mind to dig up wonderfully entertaining stories and ideas. Instead of strictly adhering to a preconceived method, I can now allow my ideas to flow unto the page, constructing an infinite array of plots and characters. Most importantly, I can now love the act of writing. Instead of slogging through an endless stream of mind numbing assignments, I can now confront each school paper with every bit of my intellect while enjoying myself. I can also engage in writing for personal fulfillment as I now possess the enlightened view that writing does not have to be boring. I have always admired your character and your work, and I hope to the information in your great contribution to good use.
...actually a pretty good number for the economy though it was so long ago. Then during the year of 2010, the unemployment rate actually got worse rising to 10% where it is now 6.60% going down quite a bit.
United States Department of Labor (2014, May 25). Bureau of Labor Statistics Data. Retrieved May 25, 2014, from http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS14000000
"Summary." U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, n.d. Web. 30 Apr. 2014.
"Summary." U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, n.d. Web. 19 Mar. 2014.
In “The Wasteland” by T.S. Elliot, he expresses the bleak future of America. Elliot describes the world in a way in which all its ambitions and hopes are lost. This loss of the American Dream was a repercussion of materialism and amorality present in humanity.
...g with many individuals, are alienated and in turn, wish for extreme change and even another life. Ginsberg conveys a vital message that carries through to the year 2010 even more. Materialism does not make a person, it is insignificant. What is imperative is the natural world; beauty, individuality, and real human interactions as these are concepts that make an individual.
Meadan, H., Stoner, J. B., & Parette, H. P. (2008). Sight Word Recognition Amoung Young Children At-Risk: Picture-Supported vs. Word-Only. Assistive Technology Outcomes and Benefits, 45-58.
"Fight Club's Criticism of the American Dream - Representing America - American Literature AP - Blog." Critics and Builders. Web. 22 Feb. 2011. .
The purpose of this study is to increase knowledge and awareness about school age students with learning disorders and autism; and to provide classroom teachers with ideas for modifications and accommodations in order to optimize daily writing requirements. Assistive technology allows for greater independence by allowing people to perform tasks they were once able to do, or have great difficulty accomplishing. IDEA 2004 defines assistive technology as any item, piece of equipment, or specific product that can be obtained commercially, modified, or customized, in order to increase, maintain or improve functional capabilities of a child with a disability. This paper will focus on assistive technology tools to enable students to overcome specific
Ginsberg says that Moloch is a “sphinx of cement and aluminum”, a “heavy judger of men”, and “whose soul is electricity and banks” (line 79-85). All these can point towards higher powers such as the Government. Such things like government buildings, the law makers, and the banks that control all the money in our cities and states. This means that our government can be the Moloch in our lives just like how they were to Ginsberg. Ginsberg says that it is “Moloch who frightened me out of my natural ecstasy” and that it is Moloch in which he “wakes up in”. The word play used confirms that he is suffering by the hands of “Moloch”, the ridged and unchangeable false god that we sacrifice our very lives