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Essay on Allen Ginsberg's Howl
Allen Ginsberg grew up in a small town in New Jersey where he could have been very happy had he not been born to a psychotic mother. She was in and out of mental facilities throughout most of his childhood. Living with her and discovering his homosexuality as a young boy exposed him to a different side of life than most have experienced.
His writings exemplify this. He was able to explore everyday sights and issues freely without holding anything back. Ginsberg speaks of a soiled America that many refuse to see. Best known for his poem “Howl”, he conveys to us a controversial side of the land of liberty.
Howl evokes emotion and social awareness of the 'illness' and 'madness' of the people and the American society. Ginsberg's poem is divided into three parts, and each part of the poem elicits a different kind of emotion and focus; the three parts wherein the poem is divided also addresses and talks about a different kind of audience, while consistently extending the message of 'madness' (in the literal and social sense) and with the issue of social strife and chaos within and among the members of the American society.
Ginsberg does not spare the ‘innocent’ reader. When one analyzes the social power of Ginsberg’s statements, one can come easily to the conclusion that society was not exactly welcoming to Ginsberg, and he reacted to that through his writing, especially in “Howl.” The second portion of “Howl” is commonly considered by critics to be the most complicated for the average mind to comprehend. In this section, nearly every thing is described as a ‘Moloch.’ Moloch, in mythology was a God to whom children were sacrificed.
Now, the term is commonly used to describe anything responsible for destroying innocence. In Part II, Ginsberg describes nearly everything about American culture to be a Moloch. Even society’s viewpoints are Molochs....
