Howl Ginsberg Analysis

The times of the 1950s are a time of great uncertainty in America. The United States of the past described by poets such as Walt Whitman does not exist anymore. In its place is an industrialized America, a hegemonic America that dominates the world with super weapons, neutrons and death. This new America creates great amount tension in its society. Howl, by Allen Ginsberg, is a response to these tensions. Ginsberg divided Howl into three sections to describe the ones howling, the causes of the Howl and how these people can redeem themselves. In this poem, Ginsberg starts each part with a general discussion before narrowing to a personal connection and then ending higher level, meta-conscious reflection. Within the superstructures of each section
used specific techniques to convey his messages. Ginsberg used clustering of substantives to describe the condition of the ones who howl in the first half of the first section, before using a personal and Meta connection to describe the true identity of these oppressed people in the second half. He then alluded to Moloch as a symbol of tyranny of society to explain the fundamental causes of the Howling in section two before using repetition in section three to imbue the idea of fealty to Carl Solomon as the only viable redemption from Moloch’s destruction for the oppressed. In the first part of the superstructure of part one, Ginsberg used a clustering of substantives to create images of tension in order to attack and subsequently reveal American society by showing the general condition of the best people in that society.
This climate is far different from the sugar coated vision of America. The mainstream describes this time period as a time of prosperity and the rise of the middle class. It is a time of American leadership in the free world. Ginsberg sees it differently. He sees society in a state of despair and decline with hopelessness rampant. The cluster of
substantives angel headed hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the/ starry dynamo in the machinery of night,/ who poverty and tatters and hollow-eyed and high sat up smoking in the supernatural darkness of cold-water flats floating across the cities contemplating jazz(3-4) allows one to see the plight of the oppressed in this society. As stated earlier by Ginsberg, the best minds of the generation have been wasted in this society. These best minds are alienated in this new society purposeless except doing drugs and “smoking in the supernatural darkness of the cold water flats” (4). The best minds do not reap the benefits of the fantastic, supernatural, new American life but instead live in such despair that their flats lack even the basic necessities such as hot water. Their conditions, however, are not just a minor blip in the overall rise of living conditions across America. Instead the poverty and despair are supernatural, powerful and entrenched in almost all aspects of American society. These images of tension also make one see that these best minds do not have faith in the materialistic vision of America. They see only poverty and do not believe America has any positives to offer and might one day be destroyed by a dropping of the bomb. Their poverty and alienation has instead made them have a “burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night”(3).These best minds, instead of building America, are trying to achieve sense of comfort in this alien world dominated by machinery, mechanization and industrialization by having a personal connection to the higher powers, maybe through religion, drugs or a combination of both.
In the second half of part one, Ginsberg connected and reflected on these oppressed people to reveal their true identity.
The drug using, alcohol chugging best minds are often labeled as mentally deranged. They “threw potato salad at CCNY lectures on Dadaism and subsequently presented themselves on the granite steps of the madhouse with shaven heads and harlequin speech of suicide”(65) and were sentenced to a bunch of cruel treatments at institutions including “hydrotherapy psychotherapy occupational therapy pingpong &amnesia”(66). Ginsberg used the turn line in section one to allow one to see that these people are not so distant from him nor his readers. They are no more than Ginsberg’s mother who was labeled insane and was abused by the institution that she lost everything, material possessions and even the tiniest trace of hope with “the last fantastic book flung out of the tenement windows, and the last door closed at 4 AM and the last telephone slammed at the wall in reply… and even that imaginary, nothing but a hopeful little bit of hallucination-“(70). Carl Solomon, another one of these people, is so close to Ginsberg that he says if Carl is “not safe I am not safe” (71). These brilliant people are locked in mental institutions, outcasts of society, and are no different than Ginsberg who was also shunned for political and sexual orientation. Ginsberg then used a secular prayer in the final moments of part one to reflect on his connections with the oppressed
individuals to create a complete image of these people. These best minds are the ones who “ran through icy streets obsessed with a sudden flash of the alchemy of the use of the ellipse the catalog the meter and the vibrating plane”(73) and who “ joined the elemental verbs and set the noun and dash of consciousness together jumping with sensation of Pater Omnipotens Aeterna Deus”(). They are poets with vast potentials of creating something so brilliant, so powerful that it will be an “eli eli lamma lamma sabacthani saxophone cry”(76) that will “ shiver the cities down to the last radio”(76) and make it “good to eat for a thousand years”(77). Ginsberg is one of these oppressed poets and Howl is the creation of “sudden flash of the alchemy”(72) that might be brilliant enough for people to enjoy a thousand years later. Ginsberg, in section two, finally reveals what causes the plight of the oppressed by alluding to the Canaanite fire god Moloch to describe the effect role of mainstream society and government on Ginsberg’s comrades. Throughout the general part of the second section’s superstructure, Ginsberg repeatedly made references to Moloch. Moloch is a god, but according to Ginsberg, it is more of a false deity who people pleased by sacrificing their children. The sacrifice of the children symbolizes sacrificing one’s future towards something greater. Ginsberg’s repetition of Moloch is used to convey the idea that Moloch is everywhere that Moloch is powerful and that Moloch surrounds his generation and is no more than the environment, the society that the oppressed are in. Even Ginsberg declared that he is part of Moloch as he is not an individual but merely “a consciousness without a body” (86). The inevitable sacrifice to mainstream society is not benign at all. Instead they are made to sacrifice their future, intellect and creativity by letting Moloch “bash open their skulls and [eat] up their brains and imagination (78). The American society, however, does more than destroy one’s imagination though. It is extremely destructive. Moloch’s mind is “pure machinery”(83) its fingers “are ten armies”(83) and its fate is complete utter destruction ending with “a cloud of sexless hydrogen”(84). Ginsberg later reflected and realized that he and his comrades have no chances against Moloch. The idea of mainstream America is so imbued in the people that Moloch “is the Mind”(84) and trying to abandon it is useless because no matter what one does that person will still “wake up in Moloch”(86). Moloch is so powerful that leaving it will drive that person insane as it will make them “jump off the roof! To solitude” (92). That person will become alienated and loses his identity or gets destroyed by drugs, alcohol and violence, not different at all from the conditions of the best minds who chose to abandon Moloch. Ginsberg’s people also cannot leave Moloch because they made Moloch. They “broke their backs lifting Moloch to Heaven”(88), hoping to build America. However they soon realized that the disastrous condition in their lives is heaven and that it is already “everywhere about us”(88). All the hopes, “visions! Omens! Miracles! Ecstasies! “(89) no longer exist as it has “gone down the American river!”(89). Ginsberg used an AB-AB format in the overall superstructure of part three to propagandize Carl Solomon and to evoke a sense of loyalty that Carl Solomon is the true savior, the man who can redeem the best minds driven insane and desolate by Moloch. For the most part, the lines vary between the calls of loyalty to Solomon represented by “I’m with you in Rockland”(95) and the credentials of Solomon. Ginsberg believes Solomon is the savior because he is mad like the best minds, and in fact madder than Ginsberg with “shades of [Ginsberg’s] mother”(99). He is like Ginsberg himself as they are both “great writers on the same dreadful type writer”(105), suffering the same degree of oppression. Ginsberg then used religious imagery to allow other to know how will redeem them. Solomon has already made a “pilgrimage to a cross in the void”(118) signifying a hero’s journey for something bigger than himself. He then plotted “the Hebrew socialist revolution against the fascist national Golgotha”(120) a move similar the death of Jesus which could be interpreted as a revolution against brutal Romans who were no different than Solomon’s institution or the government and society behind it. Finally Solomon is described as Jesus himself who will “split the heavens”(122) and bring back his human self “from the superhuman tomb” (122 )and liberate “twenty five thousand mad comrades”(124) who will be “signing the final stanzas of the Internationale”(124), the stanzas of victory of the proletariat, and victory of the oppressed against Moloch and the government. Ginsberg shows through these lines that loyalty to Solomon is no different than loyalty to Jesus and that by following Solomon, anyone can redeem themselves and gain salvation. Can Moloch be beaten? Can the best minds finally live without conformity and not go into a mental institution or live in such despair conditions that their flats lack even hot water. Ginsberg advocates that Solomon can do it. But he is skeptical about it himself. In the meta-conscious turn at the final lines of section three, Ginsberg imagines his liberation. He imagines his soul becoming so powerful that it “drops angelic bombs”(129), smashing Moloch, making the “imaginary walls collapse” (129) and finally freeing Carl and him from their society imposed gulag. In a moment of weakness and reality however, Ginsberg realized that this future might not be achieved, and the visions of a peaceful reunion with Carl are com