The Political Suffering of the Forties and Fifties Demonstrated in the Poem Howl by Ginsberg

Ginsberg’s Howl is a political poem because it offers a sharp critique of American politics and culture. Throughout the poem the reader is presented with a less than favorable portrait of America. Racism, atomic fear, the military industrial complex as Moloch all serve to criticize the United States of the Forties and Fifties. The Forties were dominated by World War II and the atomic bombs, which were followed by a postwar economic and baby boom. The Fifties were a time of change, the middle class was booming, soldiers could go to school on the G.I. Bill, Senator McCarthy was hunting for Communists, the Civil Right Movement was gaining momentum, and the Cold War had tempers running hot2. Ginsberg’s poem touches on most of these issues, and offers a perspective from a generation that was beaten down by contemporary society. The poem is broken down into three parts, and a footnote. The first part gives a layout of contemporary American society and details his beaten down generation. The second part uses ‘Moloch’ as a metaphor for the United States, or rather its society and politics, and offers sharp criticism. The last part is about insanity and his friend Carl Solomon, to whom the poem is dedicated. The derisive criticism Ginsberg uses in Howl makes the poem political.

Howl begins with the line, “I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by Madness”1. This madness envelops himself and his generation, it comes from the madness of the Unites States during the Forties and Fifties. World War II, fear of atomic warfare, rampant racism, and the Cold War all led to the madness of American culture. Growing up in this hostile environment had obvious detrimental effects on the youth of the time. They grew up in a time a fear and deat...

... middle of paper ...

...

The last part of the poem is dedicated to Carl Solomon, with whom he lost his sanity. They could come to represent an America that had also lost its sanity in a time of atomic, social and economic calamity. Ginsberg and his generation had lost their minds to Moloch, a beast that was built on the blood and sweat of its people. They lost their connection to nature, spirituality and the ‘starry dynamo’ to the ‘cannibal dynamo’ of American industry. The United States was a nation of “skeleton treasures”, “blind capitals”, and ‘monstrous bombs’. Progress had only led to death, atomic destruction and cannibalistic capitalism. Ginsberg’s howl of ‘my god, my god, why have you forsaken me’ expertly explains the way the Beats and the youth of America felt during that time. They had no hope in the atomic future; progress would only lead to being vaporized in an atomic cloud.