Challenging the Modernity of American Culture: The
Howl by Allen Ginsberg
by Barry Wright
Essay: Challenging the Modernity of American Culture: The Howl by Allen Ginsberg
Pages: 10
Rating: 3 stars
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In the poem Howl, Allen Ginsberg challenges the modernity of American culture, which enforces the “best minds”
(1) to give up their freedom to conform to the desired sense of normality. Ginsberg states “I saw the best minds of
my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked/ dragging themselves through the negro streets
at dawn looking for an angry fix” (9). His expression of Moloch The angry fix is what all of these “best minds” look
for after being stripped of their freedom to conform to the new American culture after World War II.
The form of Ginsberg’s poem challenges the American culture by resistance from “best minds”. Howl is separated
to three sections that include long lines, which look like paragraphs. Resisting traditional poems, Ginsberg
arranges long sentences as an alternative to breaking them into separate parts. This free verse poem reveals the
unorthodox meter Ginsberg puts in place through the three parts. In the first section he repeats the word “who”
before every line to address the “best minds” and how their freedom is annihilated.
Equivalently in the second, he uses the word Moloch. Moloch can be interpreted as the American culture
destroying the “best minds” (Ginsberg). Ginsberg states: “Moloch the incomprehensible prison! Moloch the/
crossbone soulless jail house and congress of sorrows” (21). He explicitly speaks about politics determining
civilization to destroy the “best minds”. The reference to a congress of sorrows relates to America’s politics being
the down fall to the best people. Lastly, Ginsberg repeats “I’m with you in Rockland” in the final part. This
addressed not just Ginsberg himself is with “you”, the reader, but also all the people who were destroyed by the
desired normalc...
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