Johannes-Gutenberg-Universität Mainz

FASK Germersheim

The Picture of the Individual and of Society in Allen

Ginsberg′s "Howl" and the Beat Generation′s Impact on

Democracy in America

Term Paper by

Patrick Wedekind

Proseminar

Democratic Vistas in American Cultural History

Summer Semester 2008

Contents

1 Introduction 1

2 The Individual in ,,Howl" 1

3 The Picture of Society and Its Influence on the Individual in "Howl" 4

4 The Beats and the Concept of Democracy 7

5 Conclusion 11

Works Cited 12

1

1 Introduction

I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked

-- Allen Ginsberg, "Howl"

Allen Ginsberg′s poem "Howl", considered one of the most influential works of the Beat

Generation, was published in 1956. At that time, American society was shaped by the Korean

War, the Cold War, and of course McCarthyism, which was a result of the Cold War. These

events led to a very conservative and intolerant society, and thus to the development of a

counterculture, including the Beat Generation writers as well as other people protesting

against this society. In "Howl", Ginsberg focuses primarily on different individuals, and on

society′s impact on them. These individuals whom he calls "the best minds of [his]

generation"1 are people at the edges of society, for example drug addicts, homosexuals, and

the mentally ill. Their life and suffering is intensively portrayed in part I of the poem, while

part II is mainly dedicated to the "Moloch" (Howl, 221), i.e. the society these people as well

as Ginsberg live in. However, part II not only portrays the "Moloch" but also describes its

influence on the individuals Ginsberg mentions in part I. The third and last part of "Howl" is

dedicated to Ginsberg′s friend Carl Solomon living in a mental institution. Due to this clear

focus, "Howl" is particularly useful to get an insight of the way the Beats used to see the

individual, American society, and the connection between the two. That is why a detailed

analysis of "Howl" is very helpful to get a better understanding of the Beat Movement,2 and

the way American society used to be in the 1950s and 1960s. Moreover, it is interesting how

closely connected the Beat Generation was to the concept of democracy although it seemed to

be a rather anarchistic movement rejecting all of society′s values. Such democratic aspects

within the movement can also be found in "Howl".

2 The Individual in ,,Howl"

Social outsiders are the center of attention in "Howl", especially in its first part. Although this

part seems to be nothing more than a collection of certain individual stories written down in a

short period of time, it is a collection of notes taken over several years, and it is far more

1 Allen Ginsberg, "Howl", Collected Poems 1947-1980 (Harper Perennial, 1988) line 1; hereafter cited in the

text as Howl (with line references)

.

2 The terms "Beat Generation", "Beat Movement", and "Beats" are used interchangeably in this term paper.

2

powerful than a mere list of events.3 Indeed, it manages very well to convey the zeitgeist of

the 1950s, and to give the reader an idea of the countercultural activities at that time.

Many of the cases Ginsberg writes about bear some similarity to one another. He frequently

mentions attempts to escape from society and their failure, a longing for alternative lifestyles,

and

a

protest

against

various

things

such

as

capitalism.

One of these attempts to escape from society can be found right at the beginning of the poem:

who

cowered

in

unshaven

rooms

in

underwear,

burning

their

money

in

wastebaskets and listening to the Terror through the wall (Howl, 16-17)

These lines talk about a person hiding in an "unshaven" room (i.e. a rather untidy room) in

underwear while "burning money" and listening to "the Terror through the wall", and they

contain two different aspects of escaping from society. Firstly, burning money stands for a

rejection of a central element of modern capitalist society, or even of capitalism as a whole.

Without money, it was hardly possible to participate in the social life of the 1950s, and it still

is today. Secondly, "the Terror through the wall" seems to be a symbol of the ills of society

that the individual is confronted with every day. The person mentioned cowers in the room

presumably because he or she fears the society outside of it, and tries not to be confronted

with it. This attempt, however, is not successful as the person still hears the "Terror" through

the wall. Other people, no matter what sexual preference they have, try to distract themselves

from the evils they see every day by excessive sex:

who let themselves be fucked in the ass by saintly motorcyclists, and

screamed with joy,

who blew and were blown by those human seraphim, the sailors, caresses of

Atlantic and Caribbean love,

who balled in the morning in the evenings in rosegardens and the grass of

public parks and cemeteries scattering their semen freely to whom-

ever come who may (Howl, 84-90)

A frequent use of different drugs offers another effective distraction from society, at least for

a limited period of time:

who

walked

all

night

with

their

shoes

full

of

blood

on

the

snowbank

docks

waiting for a door in the East River to open to a room full of steam-

heat and opium (Howl, 117-119)

3 Michael Davidson, The San Francisco Renaissance: Poetics and Community at Mid-century (Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press, 1991) 65-66; hereafter cited in the text as SFR.