Moloch

states “yacketayakking screaming vomiting whispering facts and memories and anecdotes and eyeball kicks and shocks of hospitals and jails and wars” (Ginsberg line 18). The readers knows that the word yacketayakking means talking and it talks about the memories he had is painful experiences. Even though the reader knows what line 10 is talking about, he/she would still have to see if their own translation is correct. Having no choice but to go to the internet, the reader would have to go to a website called shmoop, to translate every single line in the book. In part two, every line starts with “Moloch”. The reader does not know who Moloch is but part two is more understandable because he’s naming exactly what the problem is. His love life is one of his problems, “Moloch in whom I sit lonely! Moloch in whom I dream Angels! Crazy in Moloch! Cocksucker in Moloch! Lacklove and manless in Moloch!” (Ginsberg 86) The reader must be thinking that he’s horny since there’s the work “cocksucker” but in shmoop it says that he’s lacking love and is lonely. This kind of shows Ginsberg’s sensitive side he might not be a creepy druggy after all. In the movie, it mentions how his mother dies while part 2 was being read and reader feels sympathy for Ginsberg when he mentions that his mother died and it made him go crazy. In line 79 it has the word “sphinx”, it sounds like a fox but it’s really a mythical creature with the head of a human body but a body of a lion. This line says that the sphinx…

He becomes furious with America for destroying uniqueness by creating “mind[s] of pure machinery” (line 83). American culture and society brainwashes people’s standards of rights and wrongs. Convincing them to believe that if you are gay, you are mentally ill. Part two uses the term “Moloch” multiple times as a symbol for American society. Ginsberg exclaims relentlessly that “Moloch” is the cause of destruction, and that Moloch destroys “visions! omens! hallucinations! miracles! ecstasies!. . .…

Gary Wills’ “Our Moloch” is a contentious and aggressive article that provides an interesting and unique opinion on the issue of guns in America. It is proposed that the gun itself functions like a god within American culture, and is unquestionable. According to the article, the great god Gun is worshipped like the God of Law/Order, Patriotism, or one of Free Market in today’s society. The most significant point of this essay is Wills’ exaggerated difference between America’s love towards guns…

Howling at Moloch Examining a poem and a film in detail to find how they each work as individual pieces and how they function together helps to better understand them. The 1968 poem, Howl by Allen Ginsberg, was the basis for the 2010 film by the same name, which was directed by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman. One of the main themes throughout both the poem and the film was Moloch. The author introduces Moloch in his poem as a metaphor for all the terrible things that separate humanity from…

still carried to the second part of Howl, however, it was portrayed in a different way such as Moloch was brought up as the source of poverty. Moloch is the name of an ancient Ammonite god, in another word king. In part two of Howl, Ginsberg named the problem, “Moloch whose mind is pure machinery! Moloch whose blood is running money! Moloch whose fingers are ten armies! Moloch whose breast is a cannibal dynamo! Moloch whose ear is a smoking tomb!” (83). The line conveys that Moloch was the one…

before entrapment in mediocracy. Why choose to include the taboo? Ginsberg uses a reality that is usually ignored by most. Under capitalistic guidelines, Americans suffer to the hands of their own pursuit of the American dream. He sets the baseline for his revolution as he points to the faults in his society. Ultimately, Ginsberg sees the great minds among him turn to addiction and death in order to cope with the strain of being marginalized by capitalism, and “Howl” chooses to display the…

writing about. “Moloch” in this part is introduced to readers as a metaphor towards the American Government and institution. Ginsberg “blames the problem on Moloch, a false god or idol to whom ancient Middle Eastern cultures sacrificed children by throwing them in a fire” (Shmoop Editorial Team) as a key reason why all of these incidents are going on with himself and his friends. The way Ginsberg writes part II of Howl he repeats himself using Moloch as a person who is out to be the bad guy.…

Moloch is a false idol, most commonly used to denote a power or force that demands great sacrifice. It seems as though Ginsberg is likening the government, or even simply being an American citizen, to Moloch. The government, then, is what is demanding great sacrifice. It demands that its people give up all opposing viewpoints or anything that does not completely coincide with the government’s ideals. This section is referencing part one, where Ginsberg says that he lost his friends to the…

which is a little shorter than Part I, Ginsberg conveys and use Moloch an huge example of having a huge influence on modern American society. It also talks about making sacrifices and greed and power in government and war. Also the actions about being an openly homosexual and how it has an effect on the modern American society that we live in still today. For instance, in Lines 83-85 stated in Part II of "Howl and Other Poems," "Moloch whose mind is pure machinery! Moloch whose blood…

Moloch is seen in the Old Testament as a symbol of sacrifice because in many ways, Moloch is offered sacrifices. Ginsberg uses Moloch to bring out his anger because society is offering themselves up to Moloch. Society is losing itself and Ginsberg is angry about their actions. Ginsberg relates the current society to Moloch because of how the people live under him as they, “saw it all! The holy yells! They bade farewell! They jumped off the roof! To solitude…” (Part II, Line 15). Ginsberg persona…