In Howl, Allen Ginsburg views the world differently than most people during his time period. Howl is a poem composed of a broad range of American experiences. Ginsburg has an interesting take on America. Where most people will look at the most wealthy and successful people and infer that is what the rest of America is as a whole, Ginsberg views America from the opposite. Ginsberg’s distinguished people are the drunken man in front of the liquor store or the hitchhiker on the side of the road. Although Ginsberg’s views may come off as constricted, in some aspects this is what America is. It does not represent America as a whole but it is important to recognize all aspects of America and not just highlight all the good or all the bad. Sylvia …show more content…
Joan and Richard both have an idea of what they think would be the best way to tell their children. Richard thinks it would be best to tell them all together. Meanwhile, Joan explains to Richard it would be best to tell the children separately, “I think just making an announcement is a cop-out. They’ll start quarrelling and playing to each other instead of focusing. They’re each individuals, you know, not just some corporate obstacle to your freedom (Updike 638).” As the story continues, it is revealed to the reader that Richard initiated the divorce. The reader becomes aware of this after Joan and Richard have told, all but one, of their children about their separation and they are talking about how the conversation with their children went. Joan tells Richard, “I couldn’t cry I guess because I cried so much all spring. It really wasn’t fair. It’s your idea, and you made it look as though I was kicking you out (Updike 642).” By the end of the story, Richard is beginning to have second thoughts about his separation. Richard’s son Dickie asks him why his parents are separating and Richard stumped when he can’t even remember …show more content…
The short story begins at St. Bonny’s shelter. Two young girls by the name of Roberta and Twyla meet at St. Bonny’s and become friends when they are roomed together. Throughout the story, Morrison presents the roles of race and social class while not directly mentioning the race of her main character Roberts and Twyla. An example being when Roberta and Twyla’s mothers come to visit St. Bonny’s. Roberta goes to introduce her mother to Twyla and Twyla’s mother, Mary and Roberta’s mother is not as excited to meet her daughter’s friend and her mother as Roberta is to introduce her. “Mary, simple-minded as ever, grinned and tried to yank her hand out of the pocket with the raggedy lining --- to shake hands, I guess. Roberta’s mother looked down at me and then looked down at Mary too. She didn’t say anything, just grabbed Roberta with her Bible-free hand and stepped out of line, walking quickly to the rear of it (Morrison 613).” Morrison uses the character of Maggie throughout the story as a symbol to represent Roberta and Twyla’s similarities and differences. Each time, Twyla runs into Roberta, she is reminded of a horrible incident that happened, involving Maggie, when she and Roberta were living at St. Bonny’s. The incident with Maggie becomes a symbol for Twyla and Roberta of obvious racial and social tensions going on in the lives of Roberta and Twyla. In the end, because of the
Once again, Roberta and Twyla meet at and uppity grocery store; Roberta has climbed up the social ladder and tries to play nice. However, when Twyla brings up Maggie, Roberta tells a different story than what Twyla remembers and then tries to defend her past behavior towards Twyla by saying “‘You know how everything was (141).’” Roberta’s defense mechanism by blaming the times shows the reader just how prevalent instilled racism is between the two. Likewise, the plot reaches a climax when the women meet a third time at their children’s schools during integration. The two begin a full-on picket war with one another because Twyla catches Roberta protesting the integration of schools and when confronted, believes she is doing nothing wrong. Tensions rise when the two mirror the phrase “’I wonder what made me think you were different (143).’” This admission to social and racial differences expresses the theme of the story and opens one another’s eyes to what has really happened between the
In the novella Maggie: A Girl of the Streets and Other Short Fiction by Stephen Crane, Crane tells a story about Maggie, a girl who lives in the slums of New York City in the 1800s with her family and friends. In novella it is portrayed that Maggie desperately tries to escape the slums, however, because of Maggie’s environment and social forces, it ultimately led to her downfall and demise within society.
Comparing the Gettysburg Address and Ginsberg's America. Many writers have considered the identity of America. Two remarkable writers of two different time periods have shouldered this. They created two important works.
Maggie, although not the main focus of Recitatif, plays an extremely important role in the sense that she represents the idea that there is more to a person’s identity as well as oppression than just their race.
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.
She disapproves of Twyla’s placement with Roberta in the orphanage. Also, Twyla describes her and Roberta as “salt and pepper.” Twyla being the salt and Roberta being pepper. Twyla being the narrator introduces herself first (salt) and Roberta being the second person, she introduces her second (pepper). You never say “ pepper and salt” it’s always “salt and pepper. Twyla’s mother tries to shake Roberta’s mother’s hand but Roberta’s mother refuses to shake it. This could be because her pride is too great. Roberta’s mother probably knows about the racial remarks and does not want Twyla to get the benefit of the doubt. Roberta mother is also a very religious women, Twyla mother is a “dancer” so maybe that is another reason why she does not want to shake her hand. However, Roberta and Twyla could be either race in all honesty because Toni Morrison challenges the readers views of racism. It all depends on your perspective towards the stereotypes and racism itself. What you believe is what you think. For example, I believed Roberta is the African American but many students in my class could debate about how Twyla is the African American. Toni Morrison could be trying to tell us that there isn’t really a difference between the different races like we grow to believe there are. Throughout the whole short story I was questioning what was the race of Roberta and Twyla, debating whether I was
Twyla drives by and happens to see Roberta protesting on the integration of their children’s school. Twyla is confused as to why Roberta would be against this issue. “What are you doing? Picketing. What’s it look like…I wonder what made you think you were different. .. I swayed back and forth like a sideways yo-yo. Automatically I reached for Roberta…My arm shot out of the car window but no receiving hand was there.” (Recitatif 256-257). Not only did Twyla finally see the differences of perspectives but once she started getting attacked she was looking for Roberta’s help but she realized she was not there to help
A few cases in which this poem is particularly relevant in today’s society, apart from just the general hipster culture, is the fact that in many ways we’re faced with similar issues of social oppression of certain sects of the population, homophobia, discord amongst different cultures and excessive consumerism – all these being matters than Ginsberg felt strongly about and sought to fight against.
Ginsberg and education could be compared to mixing blood with ketchup – completely and utterly horrid. The best minds, in the perspective of Ginsberg, are entrapped by education
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.
We can now take a look at the reality Ginsberg presents in Howl, which he depicts as an oppressor of freedom. After Ginsberg secures his freedom by not adhering to society’s ideals, he shows how it leads to creating meaning and forging an identity that is distinctive from society. This is addressed in the second part, in which he writes, “Moloch! Moloch! Robot apartments!
Morrison uses the awkwardness of the two women’s meetings combined with the words spoken by the women to portray the confusion of race throughout the story. The first meeting was at Saint Bonaventure when they were roommates. Twyla’s mother was “always dancing” as a stripper and Roberta’s mother was a well off business woman “who was always sick” (Morrison) as Roberta would say. In the time period of the story, it would have made sense that a black mother would not have had a good paying job as a business woman. Because of this, one would think that Twyla was the black child while Roberta was the white one. Also, both girls’ mothers come to visit St. Bonny’s one day. Morrison focuses on the interaction between the grown women. Twyla’s mother, Mary, is dressed inappropriately and Roberta’s mother is dressed very well with “an enormous cross on her even more enormou...
Maggie lives with a poor and dysfunctional family and a hopeless future with only the small possibility of change. The environment and setting she grows up in do not support anything more than a dull, dreary and pathetic future for her. An old woman asks Maggie's brother Jimmy: "Eh, Gawd, child, what is it this time? Is yer fader beatin yer mudder, or yer mudder beatin yer fader? (Maggie, 10)" while he runs to Maggie's apartment one night. The lack of love and support of her family hinders Maggie's ability to live a happy and fulfilling life. Without knowing that someone loves her no matter what she does or how she acts Maggie may feel desperate enough to change her situation by any means she can, and without any useful guidance. Even without any positive influences Maggie grows up different from the low-life's living with and around her. Crane explains Maggie's uniqueness in the passage "None of the dirt of Rum Alley seemed to be in her veins. The philosophers up-stairs, down-stairs and on the same floor, puzzled over it" (Maggie 16). Maggie's uniqueness gives her the chance to improve her life, but only a slim chance. Even though Maggie differs from the people around her they remain sleazy, making it harder for her to change her life because she must go outside of her community for help.
Ginsberg’s erratic and unconventional style is perfect to showcase his thoughts on society, and his form represents the content of the poem seamlessly. The theme itself is interesting to explore, and his view on society at this time is fascinating and original
Evil is distance, and integration redeems. By condemning those mighty things that had made America vast and cold, and elevating those individual earthy things that were subjugated in the former’s impersonal course, Allen Ginsberg fashions a new religion that challenges the accepted order. Part I of Howl presents the pain that prompted such a reaction, and Part II points a finger at the perpetrator. Part III moves toward some semblance of hope, while shifting the poem’s focus away from the confinement of the “best minds” to tout a new state of empowerment through unity. The footnote to Howl can serve to unlock a sort of rationale behind these progressions, while perfectly at ease with putting its madness on full display.