"HOWL"

      

      Ginsberg first read Part one at the “Six Gallery Reading” which was organized by him and a few others. Part one of the poem was written based off Carl Solomon the guy he met while he was in the New York States Psychiatric Institute for 8 months. Ginsberg thought Carl was a real smart man and found some insanity in him. A lot of part one has to do with Carl’s struggle and part two focuses on Carl’s life and tragedy. When I first read the poem I thought it was all about Ginsberg. Who knew that one of his biggest poems/written piece was about a man he had met in a mental institution. 

      Ginsberg wanted to name this poem howl because he didn’t want people to think he was writing about a calm subject. The title shows that it is going to be about loud topics. This poem is nothing small. The poem expresses his thought about his generation and American culture that is ruining his generation. This is where post-modernism comes in because he is breaking away from the traditional way to grab people’s attention. (I don’t think he even knew it was going to turn out as big as it did, when he read part one only a certain amount of people were there to listen. When people heard he was going to read for a second time, a mass amount of people showed up.) He was giving them free expression which was something new and unheard of.  

      In the beginning of the poem he starts of with “I saw the best minds of generation destroyed by madness.” He is talking about his friends and other influences around him. Ginsberg wanted to showcase what is was like for a person living in America during the 1940s and 50s that did not go by the traditional American culture at the time. For example he feels as if everyone is being brain washed to be a perfect American citizen but that drove “the best minds” to fall off (sex, drugs , and explicit language) and become a non-idle American. He is now telling us that they are poor because of their artist and political beliefs. Ginsberg is telling us again that even though the best minds of his generation are falling apart they kind of stand for something. They stand for freedom and live to do what they live. They are trying to grasp for something more than a normal American life. Ginsberg talks about the “scholars of war” which is saying that he thinks they tried to do school but never went through with it. And that the work they submitted was never good enough according to professors.  Ginsberg himself had papers rejected saying he was not using his mind enough.