Summary Of Howl By Ginsberg

In “Howl”, by Allen Ginsberg, he talks about his generation and the way he feels about them. He describes his generation and says that he saw the best minds of his generation get destroyed by madness. These best minds he mentions are his friends, literary associates, and acquaintances. All of these will be associated with the Beat generation. His people are the protagonists in his poem. The poem focuses on the fractured lives of the best minds. Ginsberg uses the “who” to start many of the lines and to designate these best minds as the characters of the poem. Some of the people in his friend group went on to become known as some of the greatest figures in twentieth century literature. Some of the others in his friend group were not even interested in creating their own art or literature or original thought.
According to Ginsberg, they were still the best minds because they were able to think outside of these restraints and were the best of citizens in a wayward public, in Ginsberg’s mind. In Part I of “Howl”, Ginsberg mentions his best minds by saying, “I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked” (Levine 1356). These people in his generation were not doctors, lawyers, and scientists. They were not people whom most middle-class folks in the 1950s would have identified with the best America had to offer. That’s exactly what Ginsberg was trying to point out. They are poets, musicians, and bums. In the poem, Ginsberg explains how the best minds of his generation were destroyed. He answers that it was Moloch. Moloch was an idolatrous god to whom children were sacrificed by placing them in a fire. This god was not a friendly god. This generation was at risk for losing their own souls and their own vision to