Textual Analysis Of How And America

Running head: THEME AND TEXTUAL ANALYSIS OF “HOWL” AND “AMERICA” THEME AND TEXTUAL ANALYSIS OF “HOWL” AND “AMERICA” Name of the Student: Name of the University: Author Note: 1 THEME AND TEXTUAL ANALYSIS OF “HOWL” AND “AMERICA” Table of Contents Introduction ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ..... 2 Interpretation and analysis ................................ ................................ ................................ .............. 2 The speaker’s ideologies ................................ ................................ ................................ ............. 5 The style ................................ ................................ ..................... Error! Bookmark not defined. Reigning themes ................................ ................................ ................................ .............................. 6 Conclusion ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ...... 7 Bibliography ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ... 8 2 THEME AND TEXTUAL ANALYSIS OF “HOWL” AND “AMERICA” Introduction The two selected poems of Allen Ginsberg’s called “Howl” and “America ” are celebrated in the form of requiem and reflects on the hyperreal experience from the narrative point of view. Allen Ginsberg is a poet who has led the “Beat Movement” that specialized in satiri cal representation of the conventions of life and the way, American people are unconsciously following certain steps that lead to political unrest . The nation looks bleak and dismal from the perspective of these two poems by Ginsberg and it reflects on the way personification of America represents the whole of mankind involved in self destruction and has t he urge to fall into inactivity. The two poems are interpreted based on, the style of the narrative and persistence themes showing the originality of the poet and his perspective towards the people who are downtrodden as well as disorganized perspective. The speaker, Ginsberg portrays America in both his poems, “Howl” and “America in terms of the mentally unstable saturation among people due to the increasing communism, racism , politics and war thus, manipulati ng the public into considering self -destructio n leading to violence, unemployment, crime, punishment and others . Interpretation and analysis of Two poems, “Howl” and “America” The poem “Howl” is a disorganized poem where the vastness of the individual’s perception and their minds being metamorphosis i nto certain content in terms of images being developed in the form of rebellion, sexuality, madness , disillusioning oppression and ecstasy . The sentences in the poem of “Howl” represe nt the mental state of the speaker of the poem and the poem is aggressive in its approach this making it quite rough and emotional poem that is dedicated to Carl Salomon, a friend of his. The poem is based on the personal experiences of 3 THEME AND TEXTUAL ANALYSIS OF “HOWL” AND “AMERICA” Ginsberg to the places such as New York , Denver and others because he has lived there 1. The poem “America”, the desperate financial situation of the country is addressed with despair leading to the identification of issues that has developed from engagement to war. In “America”, Ginsberg identifies the issues of the nation by sarcastic realizatio n to wars, foreign policy, racial unrest, communism and nuclear warfare and addressing the unawareness of people towards the meaningless activities they perform. The poet uses of sarcasm to refer to the downtrodden people who are misused in this situation and the way communism is stopped and challenged during the period reflects on the people’s meaningless actions and perceptions 2. America’s representation and ideologies being discussed in the poems The style in the poem “Howl” is identified as emotional and aggressive and it is in terms of the narration and the speaker on the same page. The indirect relation to madness is expressed effectively in the poem where the antithetic sentence of verse 15 “wh o sank all night in submarine light” is the use of contra st in terms of illumination and darkness in the same sentence foreshadowing the vision that is represented by the writer. On one side, the best minds of the generation were experiencing oppression an d suffering through hallucination leading to psychiatric experiences of people. It shows the way they experienced oppression however, with that they experienced ecstasy leading to degrading mental states and the author identifies these as 1 Ginsberg, Allen. 1997. "Howl, Parts I & II By Allen Ginsberg - Poems | Poets.Org". Poets.Org . https://poets.org/poem/howl -parts -i-ii. 2 Bennett, Andrew, and Nicholas Royle. An introduction to literature, criticism and theory . Routledge, 2016. 4 THEME AND TEXTUAL ANALYSIS OF “HOWL” AND “AMERICA” individuals who a re often misunderstood in the long run 3. Issues such as homo phobic people, people suffering through psychiatric institution and other aspects that is given attention in this poem supports the fact that the poet agrees to the degrading issues. It has been o bserved that the obscene words that reflects the crazy approach as well as an ode to the people thus, relating the personal experience 4. When compared to the other poem, “America”, the aspect of prog ressive changes and development is a false sense of reli ef which is very relatable to the mental state of the best minds who are described and identified in the poem “Howl”. The concept of prophetic tradition that has been described in the poem is another important theme where the traditions and the tenets of J udaism, Jews were not particularly addressed . Other world religions are being mentioned more than one to identify the changes that countries on the global scale are experiencing . The dedication of the work to the Hebrew Bible informs of the way people asks for God’s interventions for their growth and welfare, especially after they suffer through social issues, the writer focuses on the way American people need God ’s favour to the false hopes and practices that are continuing in their daily lives. The narrat or identifies himself as the prophet, being the one taking on the responsibility to bring the change for the better 5. 3 Bennett, Andrew, and Nicholas Royle. An introduction to literature, criticism and theory . Routledge, 2016. 4 Ginsberg, Allen. 1997. "Howl, Parts I & II By Allen Ginsberg - Poems | Poets.Org". Poets.Org . https://poets.org/poem/howl -parts -i-ii. 5 Ginsberg, Allen. 1956. "America By Allen Ginsberg | Poetry Foundation". Poetry Foundation . https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/49305/america -56d22b41f119f . 5 THEME AND TEXTUAL ANALYSIS OF “HOWL” AND “AMERICA” The speaker’s ideologies shown in both poems The poems integrate the “stream of consciousness” which is a technique that reflects the personality of the poet and his style of narration towards understanding the social and the political situation which has been prevailed in terms of indifference and d isappointment among individuals. Relating to the issues, ethics, justice, wealth, society, politics and human rights, the concept of Ideology is shown in the two poems by Ginsberg and with the argument established by Bennett and Royle (2016), where illustration of social, economic and politic aspects plays a significant role in individuals and society’s change. In “Howl” the ideology in terms of government’s actions and individual choices and people’s mentality refers to the resistance their mind feels. In, “America” poem, literary elements such as apostrophe, rhetorical questions, anaphora and personification which are used to effectively make the reader more vividly involved in the understanding of the issues. The poem from line 78 to 86 feels like a rant against the discriminatory attitudes of America and the patriotism that is being used a way of judgement and referential in terms of political groups and racial groups who are in minority. Lines such as “Russia wants to east us alive” , “Her wants to grab Chicago”, “She wants to take our cars from out our garages” and other such sentences contributes to the paranoia that is developed among people and their activities in life 6. 6 Ginsberg, Allen. 1956. "America By Allen Ginsberg | Poetry Foundation". Poetry Foundation . https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/49305/america -56d22b41f119f . 6 THEME AND TEXTUAL ANALYSIS OF “HOWL” AND “AMERICA” Reigning themes in the poems that depicts the ideology of t he American society Both the poems preach the hypocrisy in the modern society and the way it works on individuals and communities leading to world’s ability to damage their own performance and activities that reflects on the serious problems. From the pers pective of the narrator, one of the theme s in the poem “Howl” is that it identifies the good in people that is misused and the poem is personal reflection which can be identified with the sentence, “I saw the best minds of my generation…”. The poet has bee n identified as one of the beat writers who expressed their perspective by being diachronous where the progress among people is scattered and the poet clearly informs of the way he considers that people are being destroyed by madness 7. The topic in the poe m “Howl” is of madness that is strong in its representation due to his mother’s influence on him who was mentally unstable leading to Ginsberg being in a psychiatric institute when developing the poem. The be at writers are addressed as some of the best wri ters and they are described as “who” which is an anaphora using the light and the darkness being used to define the poem. Relevance of the poems “Howl” and “America” reflects on the madness and their uninformed and uneducated perspective in terms of mental issues and peace 8. 7 Bennett, Andrew, and Nicholas Royle. An introduction to literature, criticism and theory . Routledge, 2016. 8 Ginsberg, Allen. 1956. "America By Allen Ginsberg | Poetry Foundation". Poet ry Foundation . https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/49305/america -56d22b41f119f . 7 THEME AND TEXTUAL ANALYSIS OF “HOWL” AND “AMERICA” Conclusion In conclusion, the significance of the Ginsberg’s poem reflects on the effectiveness and happiness which integrates the isolated pieces of language informing of the ideologies where the philosophy is practiced. The dissemination and propagation that has been observed in the political implementation of America’s people reflects on the way the confusion of the people and their ineffective activities. This is a way relationship between the mind of the people and their environment is highly dependent on the way they identify discourse as well as resign to the reality of the issue. On the whole, the two poems are analysed effectively regarding the common approach on the narration that is sarcastic, rough, emotionally sombre. The element of rage, aggression and madness is persistent throughout the sentences of both the poems however, “America” is different in i ts approach and its addressing of the social issues and its resolution. “Howl” is more of an emotional and aggressive approach while “America” is reflect on the narration’s optimistic attitude towards the issue and developing a resolution towards it. 8 THEME AND TEXTUAL ANALYSIS OF “HOWL” AND “AMERICA” Bi bliography Bennett, Andrew, and Nicholas Royle. An introduction to literature, criticism and theory . Routledge, 2016. Ginsberg, Allen. 1956. "America By Allen Ginsberg | Poetry Foundation". Poetry Foundation . https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/49305/america -56d22b41f119f . Ginsberg, Allen. 1997. "Howl, Parts I & II By Allen Ginsberg - Poems | Poets.Org". Poets.Org . https://poets.org/poem/howl -parts -i-ii.