Beat Generation

Allen Ginsberg's Howl was exactly as the title suggested; a howl. His protest against capitalism and conformity called into question what it truly meant to be normal. His explicit images of sex, drugs, and violence appalled societies' average readers. Through the chaos, however, something about Howl spoke to me. Today, we live in a world where we scrutinize mental health and, in this state, I found myself empathizing with young Ginsberg and the horror of his experiences. Ginsberg broke Howl up…

School in 1943 his father wanted him to be a labor lawyer. “Ginsberg quickly dropped this aspiration and settled into his niche in the university's English Department. Professor Lionel Trilling became his mentor, encouraging Ginsberg to write poetry” (Beat Bios). He went on to Columbia University, it was there that he would meet, Lucien Carr, William Burroughs, and Columbia dropout and ex-football player Jack Kerouac. In 1945, he was suspended from the university for letting Jack Kerouac sleep…

American poets of the 20th century and one of the forerunners to the Beat generation of the 1950’s. He was born in Newark, New Jersey in 1926 and graduated from Colombia University in 1948. Ginsberg did not gain any public attention until his release of “Howl” in 1955 (Poetry Foundation). The poem gained national attention for its freethinking ideas and provocative language which made Ginsberg an icon among the Beat Generation. During the time of post World War II, America’s culture and politics…

Jack Kerouac’s On the Road demonstrates the limitless mobility for white American men during the Long Fifties. Kerouac establishes this idea through his characters and adds those of another race and ethnicity to illustrate their freedom or otherwise (lack of freedom) as a Mexican migrant workers. It is unconventional that Sal finds comfort in his encounters with Mexican migrant workers that he meets throughout his western travels. Although it appears to be a carefree and untroubled life,…

and to make matters worse, a new suburban class was on the rise. Around the same time, literary and cultural activists broke the mold of rampant conformism and corroborated their talents to form a new movement, the Beatnik movement. The Beatnik, or Beat movement, characterized by rejection of tradition and materialism, preceded and foreshadowed yet another movement with the same main ideals, but a much…

Obscene America: An Analyzation of Howl In 1955, beat writer Allen Ginsberg produced a free-verse poem titled Howl. Ginsberg’s Howl is a poem that embodies the conditions of America, specifically how Ginsberg viewed them to be. Being a beat writer, Ginsberg was completely aware of the unjust and superficial ideals America was projecting. Not only, but Ginsberg’s poem was completely uncensored, real, and raw while addressing these issues. For instance, his poem was so uncensored, real, and raw…

Desiree Seisa COMM 541 Professor R. Lescure 25 May 2016 Final Paper Over the last two decades, the increase of accessibility and ability to connect with others has tremendously expanded, creating an innumerable amount of diverse opportunities for self-expression. While this has opened up many doors for people to discover different styles and spark new interests, it can also create a sense of loss of identity through the limitless world of the Internet as social media and online communities…

did just that when he wrote, "Howl and Other Poems" which became famous of his time and continue on till today. Allen Ginsberg’s famous poem, "Howl and Other Poems" conveys and portrays a message to an audience in which modern poetry and the Beat Movement on American literature was raw and revealing about the political and social views such as war, sexuality, and drugs. Allen Ginsberg was born in Newark, NJ, in 1926, he suffered an emotionally troubled childhood because of the…

revealing, and dangerous it was within the contexts of society. It shattered walls, gave a voice to the vagabonds, free-spirits, artists, and erotic people of not only America but the world. It was these people that Ginsberg called “the best minds of my generation” and “Howl” is an ode to them, as they served as the inspiration and subjects of the piece. Although those who sold, purchased, and published “Howl” were initially arrested…

Kerouac, it explains how he tries to forget society’s rules and break-free. Alberto does something similar in his essay, “The Secret Lion.” Alberto Rios attempts to defy society, at much younger age than Kerouac, and gets hurt because of it. The “Beat Generation” included authors who wrote many great essay’s, short stories, and poems. Although this starting group was small, they had an incredible impact on literature. The four people who are the “founders” of this movement are Jack Kerouac,…