“A Supermarket in California” written by Allen Ginsberg, illustrates a colorful happy supermarket where the speaker strolls through. Later on, we come to find that the speaker finds his crush or another man that he is interested in, Walt Whitman. The speaker shows signs of lust through his constant questioning of Whitman: “Will we wander through silent streets alone?” Throughout the poem the speaker is rebelling against society loving a man of the same-sex in a public place, letting his homosexuality shed light. Through the parallel structure provided in the plot, Allen Ginsberg argues that loving a man isn't any different from loving a woman; there are still questions about mutual feelings and uncertainty.
The symbols we used in our video were the peaches, the penumbras, the book and the boat. These symbols stood for much more than the meaning which was put into the poem. The peaches in the penumbras were used in our video because of the bright colorful colors this poem shares and the colors show the speakers sexuality. The bright vibrant colors help the reader to realize that the speaker is a homosexual. In the poem the speaker describes these bright fruits “What peaches and what penumbras!” Our reasoning for leaving this scene in color helped us to create the same hints the author gave the reader. The book represents the past
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and the memories the speaker shares with his love, Walt Whitman.
In this, it expresses how the speaker gazed and dreamed of his adventure with Whitman: “I touch your book and dream of our odyssey in the supermarket and feel
absurd.” The quote shows a key shift in the poem, where the speaker has this wonderful time but feels betrayed because Whitman isn't giving the speaker any clues as to if Whitman wants to continue with the speaker or not. At the end of the video and the poem, there is a boat depicted the boat represents a passing adventure or opportunity. From fist glance of the poem, it seems that the author leaves the reader hanging. The reader may ask, does Whitman have feelings for the speaker or not? However, with he symbol of the boat at the end of the poem, “Watching the boat disappear on the black waters of Lethe,” shows us that Whitman is missing out on the opportunities the speaker can bring Whitman if they were together. The poem's exciting tone, in the beginning, has many exclamation points to add emphasis to the vibrant images in the supermarket. Further into the poem is where the darkness presides over the words and the poem becomes dark and sad. There are numerous questions asked throughout the poem that never end up having an answer. The questions outweigh the poem and cause the tone to be gloomy. The speaker is asking the questions to Walt who is unable to answer. The contrast from beginning to end conveys the deep tone the poet is trying to portray in the poem, which is his excitement for his sexuality versus the paralyzing way others view his sexuality. Ginsberg wrote the poem “A Supermarket in California”, to reveal the themes of sexual identity, literature and writing, and visions of America to show the mainstream idiocracy of the world we lived in. In the poem, all the poets mentioned were homosexual men during a period where it was unacceptable in society. He feels he does not fit into the world where he is so different due to his love for men instead of women. Also, the poem introduces some other poets who had already passed that were homosexual as being inspirations to the poet Allen Ginsberg. He writes about life in the America to be just like his model poet Walt Whitman. Ginsberg writes about the “perfect” life, to which he does not fit into. He writes about how people should want love in things you cannot buy, but in things without a price. He questions this statement to Whitman wondering if his dream will ever come true of having the picture-perfect life.
In his essay “Being Green at Ben and Jerry’s,” George F. Will lays out his argument against the environmentalists who hypocritically prevent coal mining and oil drilling in or near foreign soil. Despite the United States having enough oil and coal to be self dependent for years, tree huggers want to save our earth and import instead. However, letting places like Iraq do all of the resource extraction and the United State buying it from them is not much better. These environmentalists then call for a decrease in energy consumption, but no politician in his right mind would go against the Americans who love their big, gas-guzzling cars. Mostly, energy conservatives make policies that help them sleep well at night, rather than anything of actual
Symbols in poetry can be a person , place , thing or idea . In the poem titled “ Love Poem to Los Angeles by Luis J. Rodriguez the poet uses the Hollywood Sign as a symbol to represent famous people . In another poem titled “Santa Ana of Grocery Carts “ by Aracelis Gimary the poet uses schoolyard boys as a symbol to represent young men who have died . The meaning of these symbols is similar because they both can represent people and how they’re special . However, the difference of these symbol is that the hollywood sign represents something only positive in the poem and on the other hand the schoolyard boys represent only something negative because it is related to death .
While running the Whistle Stop Cafe, Idgie and Ruth help certain individuals, especially throughout the extraordinary misery, when the ladies sustain each eager individual – frequently at no charge – that passes through their entryways. Idgie likewise supports the "colored" occupants of Whistle Stop by serving them from the indirect access – despite the fact that isolation is strictly upheld – and treating her colored people with the same reasonableness with which she treats her white workers. A scene that was very gruesome which leads to a character development in Idgie is at the point when the forthcoming Bennett tries to take the infant from her house one night, a hued workers, Sipsey, kills him with a griddle, and her child, Huge George, discards the body in that week's barbecue, which he then proceeds to feed to the analysts performing the homicide investigation. Eventually when Idgie is captured for the wrongdoing years after the fact, she declines at fault Huge George or Sipsey, and dangers time in jail deceiving the jury by providing a plausible excuse for all of them. At the point when Ruth dies, Idgie's story basically ceases from all operations, however at the end of the novel, it is indicated that she is still alive. But when idgie was young it was quite clear that she was not always like this because she used to be the type that needed to run about and scratch her knees, get bruised eyes, and get messy, and that is simply what she did. Not much her own particular Momma could do to control her. Another side that reveals a character trait of Idgie’s is the point when Buddy dies Idgie runs off and doesn’t let anybody in her family draw close to her. She might go back just to check how her family was doing, yet she lived ...
Throughout the words and the lives of the Beat Generation, one theme is apparent: America, everywhere from Allen Ginsberg’s “America,” to Jack Kerouac’s love for Thomas Wolfe. Although the views of America differ, they all find some reason to focus in on this land. Ginsberg, in his poem “America,” makes a point that not many of us can see as obvious: “It occurs to me that I am America. I am talking to myself again.” Each and every one of us make up America, and when we complain about something that is wrong, we are complaining about ourselves. Being raised by his mother as a Communist, and being homosexual, Ginsberg found many things wrong with America, and he does his fare share of complaining, but at the end he decides, “America I’m putting my queer shoulder to the wheel.” Ginsberg didn’t want to sit and watch everything go wrong. He was going to do something, despite the fact that he was not the ideal American.
In America today, race/ethnicity, class categorization, and gender inequalities are just some of the most controversial issues that have created social division in every facet of our society. Gender inequality for one, remains a significant issue from the past up to this day. Looking at history, women have struggled to gain equal rights as well as equal pay against their male counterpart. As described in her book, “Cutting into the Meatpacking Line”, Deborah Fink detailed the inequalities against women and ethnic groups in the meatpacking plant where she had a first-hand experience as a worker. Furthermore, capitalism played an important role in the inequalities in race, gender, culture, and ethnicity, and it has also legitimized the disparities
Symbolism is strongly represented through Kaplan’s short story. The symbols represented are the ocean, the killing of the doe and the woods. Visiting the ocean for the first time at the Jersey Shore was new for Andy. Since then she had been awfully frightened of the ocean. She believes the ocean to be a huge, vast that constantly moved, keeps shifting
Symbolism is commonly used by authors that make short stories. Guin is a prime example of how much symbolism is used in short stories such as “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” and “Sur.” In both of these stories Guin uses symbolism to show hidden meanings and ideas. In “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” there is a perfect Utopian city, yet in this perfect city there is a child locked in a broom closet and it is never let out. A few people leave the city when they find out about the child, but most people stay. Furthermore, in “Sur” there is a group of girls that travel to the South Pole and reach it before anyone else, yet they leave no sign or marker at the South Pole. Guin’s stories are very farfetched and use many symbols. Both “Sur” and “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” have many symbols such as colors, characters, objects, and weather. The four types of symbols that Guin uses help the readers understand the themes in her short stories. Although her stories are farfetched, they need symbolism in them or the reader would not understand the theme; therefore the symbols make Guin’s stories much more enjoyable.
Symbolism is strongly represented through Kaplan’s short story. The symbols represented are the ocean, the killing of the doe and the woods. Andy saw the ocean for the first time at the Jersey Shore and is awfully frightened of the ocean since. She believes the ocean to be a huge vastness that constantly moved, keeps shifting and kept things
American poetry, unlike other nations’ poetry, is still in the nascent stage because of the absence of a history in comparison to other nations’ poetry humming with matured voices. Nevertheless, in the past century, American poetry has received the recognition it deserves from the creative poetic compositions of Walt Whitman, who has been called “the father of American poetry.” His dynamic style and uncommon content is well exhibited in his famous poem “Song of Myself,” giving a direction to the American writers of posterity. In addition, his distinct use of the line and breath has had a huge impression on the compositions of a number of poets, especially on the works of the present-day poet Allen Ginsberg, whose debatable poem “Howl” reverberates with the traits of Whitman’s poetry. Nevertheless, while the form and content of “Howl” may have been impressed by “Song of Myself,” Ginsberg’s poem expresses a change from Whitman’s use of the line, his first-person recital, and his vision of America. As Whitman’s seamless lines are open-ended, speaking the voice of a universal speaker presenting a positive outlook of America, Ginsberg’s poem, on the contrary, uses long lines that end inward to present the uneasiness and madness that feature the vision of America that Ginsberg exhibits through the voice of a prophetic speaker.
Poems are often designed to express deep feelings and thoughts about a particular theme. In Theodore Roethke’s poem, My Papa’s Waltz, and Ruth Whitman’s poem, Listening to grownups quarreling, the theme of childhood is conveyed through their details, although we can neither see a face nor hear a voice. These poems are very much alike in their ideas of how their memories pertain to the attitudes of their childhood; however, the wording and tones of the two poems are distinct in how they present their memories. The two poems can be compared and contrasted through the author’s use of tone, imagery, and recollection of events; which illustrate each author’s memories of childhood.
The homosexual themes displayed in Walt Whitman’s works, especially in his most famous collection of poems Leaves of Grass, raise the question of his own sexuality. Many of his poems depicted affection and sexuality in a simple, personal manner, causing nineteenth century Americans to view them as pornographic and obscene. Based on this poetry, Whitman is usually assumed to be homosexual, or at least bisexual. However, this assumption does not account for major influences of his writing such as the shift from transcendentalism to realism and the American Civil War. After considering these factors, it can be concluded that Whitman’s poems were not intended to set apart a few homosexual men, but to bring all men and women together. Walt Whitman’s poems of spiritual love and physical togetherness of both genders emphasized exalted friendships and are indicative of his omnisexuality, or lack of a complete sexual preference, rather than his alleged homosexuality.
Ginsberg’s “A Supermarket in California” criticizes America during the midst of the twentieth century in which society had acquired an attitude that heavily valued the materialistic aspects of life. In order to efficiently express the speaker’s discontent with society, he paints images by using vivid detail throughout the entire poem to allow the reader to experience what the speaker experiences himself. He begins by describing the setting on the streets of California, “I walked down the sidestreets under the trees…/… looking at the full moon” (2-3) and had thoughts of Walt Whitman, a nineteenth century poet whom Ginsberg deeply admired. The setting is essential as it describes the two worlds in which the speaker lives in; one represented by the metropolitan landscape of downtown California and another represented by nature, which the speaker longs to be a part of. The speaker describes himself as a lost soul in search of satisfaction in conventional America, a place where he does no...
Although Whitman uses a great deal of structural ways to stress his ideas, he also uses many other ways of delivering his ideas. First of all, Whitman portrays himself as a public spokesman of the masses. The tone of the poem is a very loud, informative tone that grabs ones attention. The emphasis placed on the word “all” adds to the characterization of Whitman as a powerful speaker. Furthermore, Whitman takes part in his own poem. Participating in his own poem, Whitman moreover illustrates the connection between everything in life. Lastly, Whitman, most of all, celebrates universal brotherhood and democracy.
As discussed in earlier papers, poets use devices to help enhance their images to the reader. One device not yet discussed is a symbol. John Drury, a poet, explains a symbol as, "an image that radiates meanings" (Gioia 276). Whatever the image is that each poet chooses to use creates a different and separate from another poet's use of that same image. Also, it is possible for a reader to see a symbol in a word or object that the author had never intended. In G.K. Chesterton's, "The Donkey," the donkey is a symbol for the some of today's society view people of mixed races and how people with multiple backgrounds will have their finest "hour" (Line 13).
Whitman's Poem "Out of the Cradle, Endlessly Rocking," is not, at first glance, an obvious love poem. Most readers would probably consider this a tragic poem about death and love lost. In spite of the fact that the poem is about intrinsically sorrowful events, or perhaps because of it, Whitman is able to capture a very unique and poignant portrayal of love. There are three major perspectives to examine how Whitman develops the theme of love in Out of the Cradle, and by examining each reoccurring theme in the poem separately, we can come to a more complete understanding of how they work together to communicate Whitman's message about love.