Allen Ginsberg

Allen Ginsberg 	Allen Ginsberg
 	
Subject: 	Literature III
Life Span: 	1926-1997
Work(s) Analysed:	Howl
Chronology 	Chronology
Previous: 	Arthur Miller
Next: 	Maya Angelou
==Biography==
==Historical & Cultural Context==
==Bibliography==
==Howl==
==Intro Paragraph==
The middle of the 20th century in Europe and America saw the rise of social and political twists that challenged the very pillars society has lied on for centuries. The chaos left after the horrors of the Second World War and the incipient threat of the rivalry between America and Russia stirred a sense of emergence and non-conformism among the alarmed citizens. In the US, this resulted in the rise of several movements meant to fight for the rights of oppressed minorities and oppose traditions that, in their accord, were fragmenting society. These current of ideas gave birth to a new era for the history of humanity: post-modernism. In literature, this movement prompted the emergence of experimental, more interconnected pieces, often meant to question and analyze reality. Post-modern pieces tended to be ironic, rooted in pop-culture, and a frank celebration of the disorder present in these unprecedented times. Among post-modern writers can be catalogued the American poet Allen Ginsberg. Son of Jewish parents, Ginsberg was able to spot the hypocrisy of the American society and founded the Beat Generation, a group of writers aligned with the hippie movement who attempted to reflect their beliefs in their pieces. Nowhere better seen the traits of such revolutionary movement than in Ginsberg’s key poem “Howl”, a free-verse composition that resonates as a cry for relief in regards of what he considers to be “the best minds” of his generation. Divided in three parts, this highly allusive, energetic poem constitutes the manifesto of the Beat Generation. In “Howl”, the stunned audience comes across with the main tenets of the hippie movement and their perception on the traditions that they believed to stain society. 
Throughout the first section of the poem, Ginsberg lies out to the audience the values that marked the tenets of the Beat Generation, including freedom of expression, the embracement of sex, and the use of recreational drugs.
-Freedom of expression and communism
-Vietnam war
-QUOTE
-The embracement of sexual freedom
-QUOTES / non-comormism
-Ginsberg gay?
-The use of recreation drugs as a source of inspiration
-QUOTES
Ginsberg dedicated the second part of his mythical poem to reflex the characteristics of the punishing traditions that limit the joy of his contemporaries.
-The symbol of moloch
-Moloch as the government 
-Quote
-Moloch as the city, lack of nature, the opposite of flower power
-Quote
-Moloch as consumerism, capitalism
-Carl Solomon as an example of the repression of society 
===MLA citation===
Ginsberg, Allen. "Howl." 1956. Howl and Other Poems. City Lights, 1973. pp. 9-22.
==Sources==
Overview 	Overview 	Overview
Literature 	Literature II 	Wilfred Owen · John M. Synge · T.S. Eliot · Joseph Conrad · Virginia Woolf · Stevie Smith · Dylan Thomas · Philip Larkin · Seamus Heaney · Benjamin Zephaniah · Nadine Gordimer · Leanne Shapton
Literature 	Literature III	Pre-colonial & Puritan · St. John de Crevecoeur · Edgar Allan Poe · Ralph Waldo Emerson · Walt Whitman · Emily Dickinson · Kate Chopin · Mark Twain · Ezra Pound · Ernest Hemingway · Langston Hughes · Robert Frost · William Faulkner · Arthur Miller · Allen Ginsberg · Maya Angelou · Sandra Cisneros · Paul Auster · Jonathan Foer
Perspectives	Unit 1 	Rise of Democratic Ideas · Global Interdependence · World Religions · Eastern and Western worlds
Perspectives	Unit 2 	An age of democracy and progress · U.S. Westward expansion and Civil War · The New Imperialism
Perspectives	Unit 3 	China and Japan · U.S. economic imperialism · World War I · The Golden Door
Perspectives	Unit 4 	Revolutions in Russia · Totalitarianism · Postwar uncertainty · The Roaring Twenties · A worldwide depression · Fascism rises in Europe · World War II
Perspectives	Unit 5 	The Cold War · Civil Rights Movement