Dalton Brown
CULF 1318
Professor Sievers
4 May, 2016
Project 2: Allen Ginsberg, Howl, Section II
Some of the most difficult tasks and movements throughout American history have been overcome through literary texts. Although this poem is not about movement it is much about a task, which unfolds the dismantled social and political issues that were occurring in the 1950’s in America. Allen Ginsberg, the author of Howl, creates a powerful poem which digs deep into his own personal feelings and the roots of all issues. In the second section of Howl, Ginsberg uses a symbolic figure known as “Moloch” to connect the reader to how society has affected his peers, his life as a homosexual man, and the political issues that plays a factor in his attempt to make a statement of holiness in all of mankind.
The beauty behind the purpose of Ginsberg’s second section of Howl is how he dissects and digs deep into the truth behind America’s society during the 1950’s. In the opening statement of the second section Ginsberg uses the ancient Egyptian Sphinx, which is a symbolism of “strength and wisdom” as a symbol of the American society and their role in “destroying the best minds” of his generation (Guardian’s Sphinx).
When Ginsberg states, “What sphinx of cement and aluminum bashed open their skulls and ate up their brains and imagination?” I believe he is using the sphinx as the strength of society to open up to the audience that the intellect of his peers is suffocated and belittled by social standards. However, the sphinx like society takes a slight turn in the next statement as he begins his rant of shouting “Moloch!” Ginsberg reveals his anger to the audience by portraying society as Moloch, which is according to the Christian Apologetics & Research Ministry “one of the false gods that Israel would worship during its periods of apostasy.” Moloch was the ancient pagan God of child sacrifice (CARM). Ginsberg shouting is an attempt of sympathy and element of engagement to the seriousness of the social issues.
These social issues that he is trying to decipher for the audience are a product of the time period this story was written. American society was at the peak of its existence during the 1950s. The United States had just won World War II. The Cold War was at its developing stages and the Space Race was in full effect. Hence the reason when he states, “Moloch the vast stone of war! Moloch the stunned governments!” The society was in a state of developing the world’s finest technological advances and capitalist structures the world has ever seen. However, anything that was not up to the social standard of society or anything different was seemed to be frowned upon. Any person wishing to be something out of the ordinary or chasing a dream that wasn’t socially acceptable was suffocated by everyone around them.
The reader begins to step into the shoes of Ginsberg and feel his suffocation when he states, “Moloch the loveless! Mental Moloch! Moloch the heavy judger of men!” In this sentence he opens up to the reader on how he feels judged about his lifestyle, his work, and how his peers are judged by society. However, his imagery is mastered further in the section when he sort of calls out Moloch for their prejudice judgements. “Moloch whose eyes are a thousand blind windows!” A thousand blind windows refers to how he feels like a thousand people are watching him, judging him, suffocating him from the outside looking in. Without interaction, verification, or understanding of the man he really is.
In the very next sentence Ginsberg uses excellent imagery to connect the social issues that affected him and his peers when he states, “Moloch whose skyscrapers stand in the long streets like endless Jehovahs! Moloch whose factories dream and croak in the fog! Moloch whose smoke-stacks and antennae crown the cities!” This could potentially be one of Ginsberg’s greatest lines in all of Howl. The skyscrapers standing in the streets like endless Jehovah’s is a literary element used to connect the prejudice and judgmental society to endless Jehovah’s forcing Ginsberg and his peers how they should be. In other words, what the society will accept of them. This is powerful because it allows the audience to understand what he is going through at the time of his writing. For example, when he says “factories dream and croak in the fog” I believe he is referring to his own dreams not just the society. Almost as if there is no ceiling for opportunity and a mind or dream gets crushed by the social stance, and the smoke-stacks crowning the city are a symbolism of the dreams getting lost and faded throughout life.
However, the most important message Ginsberg wants to make is his how society is affecting his personal life. It is difficult to understand the importance and seriousness of his imagery and symbolic literary use without realizing how his life has been infringed upon by society.
Ginsberg exerts empathy towards the middle of this section as when he states, “Moloch in whom I sit lonely!” A loneliness that could be confusing without realizing the cause of it. In a video of Howl, where actor James Franco plays Ginsberg, he confesses to being a homosexual; which unlocks the key to deciphering his unorthodox style of writing. After listening to his life story and drive for writing this famous poem one can put themselves in his shoes. The reader can almost feel what he’s feeling because of how deep he gets into these issues. More so because they are coming first hand.
When this poem was written being a homosexual was not socially acceptable. His state of loneliness in Moloch is only a microscopic expression of how it felt to be a homosexual in the 1950’s. Ginsberg begins to rant on the way he feels or also the names he gets called as a homosexual when he states, “Crazy in Moloch! Cocksucker in Moloch! Lacklove and manless in Moloch!” Society has suppressed his life through the stereotype as a homosexual. He feels “manless”, crazy, and nothing but a “cocksucker” in Moloch (society). I believe Ginsberg briefly touches base on his childhood and becomes sentimental as he writes about how he was “frightened out of his natural ecstasy.” His natural ecstasy, meaning his happiness in being who he really is and how he was scared to face it publicly because of his family and peers.
However, what is interesting about the line where he writes about his “natural ecstasy” is how he admittedly doesn’t care and rebels against Moloch. He “abandons” Moloch because of their misguided judgements. Then turns the script from his arguments and begins blaming the political side of American society at the end of the section.
Ginsberg opens up to political topics that were extremely frowned upon in this time period. He uses lines like “skeleton treasuries”, “blind capitals”, “demonic industries”, and “spectral nations” to call out the flawed political issues American society was facing in the fifties. The focus of America during this time was so misguided in the eyes of Ginsberg and he pushes to use powerful adjectives on political issues because he saw what they were doing to the rest of the country. He states, “They broke their backs lifting Moloch to Heaven! Pavements, trees, radios, tons! lifting the city to Heaven which exists and is everywhere about us!” which in my eyes is the most powerful and important message Ginsberg tries to get across to the audience in this poem. After reading the footnotes to Howl, watching the documentary, and researching the background of Allen Ginsberg the message becomes crystal clear to me. During the time this poem was written, American had won the World War II, were winning the space race, were experiencing a civil rights movement, and were the leaders in the world’s best economy. Ginsberg is trying to express here how important his generation is to the future of these accomplishments and innovations. However, social oppression and false moral compass of the government has torn apart his generation and the generations to come. He is trying to say here that they broke their backs in reference to the future generations trying to get America to the superpower they are.
Also, I believe he is trying to say that America broke their backs trying to build America into the elite superpower of the world and in the process ruined the foundation on which the country was built. The freedom and opportunity in which the country was engraved had lost its way and Ginsberg feels like his generation and peers similar to him are the ones suffering. However, I believe the most powerful goal he attempts to accomplish is in the next line where he states, “Pavements, trees, radios, tons! lifting the city to Heaven which exists and is everywhere about us!” I feel as if he is trying to accomplish his main goal to get the audience to come to the realization that despite social standards, stereotypes, and the prejudice that is inflicted upon certain individuals that they are “Holy.” However, he does not just mean certain people he means anything and everything that “exists and is everywhere about us” is in fact holy, which is what he means when he says that the city being lifted to Heaven is actually already there.
Ginsberg believes the lack of this vision and way of thinking in society is responsible for the destroyed minds of his generation. Their “Visions! omens! hallucinations! miracles! ecstasies! gone down the American river!” However in Ginsberg’s eyes, it’s also their “Dreams! adorations! illuminations! religions! the whole boatload of sensitive bullshit! Breakthroughs! over the river! flips and crucifixions! gone down the flood!” It’s possible that he is making a prediction when referencing the American river flooding. I feel as if this is his goal and overall purpose of this poem is to address the potential implications of these issues, which in this case he is saying the death of his generation or possibly the future of America.
It’s easy to see how his writing is influenced from a personal experience through the piece where he says, “Real holy laughter in the river! They saw it all! the wild eyes! the holy yells! They bade farewell! They jumped off the roof! to solitude! waving! carrying flowers! Down to the river! into the street!” This flooding river analogy he continues to rant about is first viewed as his generation as a whole but then changes to a personal more vivid approach. I feel as if his final statement this section is derived from a way personal feeling he has with how society views him and his lifestyle. Even though he continues to use “They” in these lines I feel as if he talking about himself.
His view seems to be aimed at a higher level of political issues throughout section two, because he makes statements that discredit the key industries which run our economy. However, his approach to discrediting these industries can be viewed as anti-capitalistic because the industries he mentions are the ones who generate the world’s economy not just Americas. Meaning, Ginsberg could potentially be expanding his audience globally when he states, “Moloch whose love is endless oil and stone! Moloch whose soul is electricity and banks! Moloch whose poverty is the specter of genius.” I feel like this specific piece from the poem submits to an audience much more than just his peers or others with his similar way of life.
Throughout American history we have been fortunate enough to be in the presence of many movements which shape our country into what is it today. However, the social and political issues that arise in Allen Ginsberg’s Howl, are the very issues that are pressing our country today. The audience experiences heartfelt sympathy, connection, comfort, but most of all an open mind to a realistic matter. Therefore, should his work be considered of value? Absolutely! His writings dissect the realism of stereotypes and social standards in America, which have and still are the cause in the destruction of generations. Allen Ginsberg made a stand in section two of this poem to the exact genre of social and political issues that need to be addressed and compromised in today’s society, but made sure to emphasize his argument against them as the existence of holiness in everything we are surrounded by.
Works Cited
“Guardian’s Sphinx.” Guardian’s Sphinx. Andrew Bayuk, 2005. Web. 04 May 2016.
“Moloch, the Ancient Pagan God of Child Sacrifice.” CARM. Christian Apologetics & Research Ministry. Web. 04 May 2016.