Supermarket In California By Allen Ginsberg: Poem Analysis

Analyzing literature is a multi-step process that requires much more consideration and dedication than a single read. Although many people believe they can find the meaning of literary writing by defining terms and combining them with his or her own interpretation, analysis goes much further. Understanding the true meaning of an author’s work requires you to research the author and his or her intentions, enhance your background knowledge of the subject of the work, and realize its historical significance. A Supermarket in California by Allen Ginsberg is a remarkable poem that was written in the 1950s, with far more meaning than meets the eye. At first glance, it seems as though this poem is about a man strolling through the night who, in hunger,

decides to visit a supermarket before wandering through the dark night with another man. Though it seems relatively straightforward, this writing is a countercultural piece of writing that opposes conformity, consumerism and materialism, and incorporates controversial content. A Supermarket in California is a journey through Ginsberg’s existentialism, his rejection of consumerism, and his fondness of naturalism.
Throughout his poem, Allen Ginsberg is searching for himself through his thoughts and action. He openly expresses his homosexuality by introducing Walt Whitman and Garcia Lorca, two notable homosexual poets, to the supermarket. “In [his] hungry fatigue” (Ginsberg) Ginsberg goes to the supermarket, thinking about Whitman’s work (Ginsberg). While walking through the supermarket, he says, “I saw you, Walt Whitman… poking among the meats… and eyeing the grocery boys” (Ginsberg). Considered double entendre, these phrases reference a crude term for male intercourse, and Ginsberg’s homosexual fondness. And as he continues on his “odyssey” (Ginsberg), his obsession with Walt Whitman becomes clearer. Instead of identifying himself in the first-person singular, he transitions to identifying with Walt Whitman in the first-person plural; furthermore including Whitman in the narrative of his activities. He previously wrote that he was following Whitman, but soon after places himself with Whitman: “We strode down the open corridors together in our solitary” (Ginsberg). His change in the use of the word “I” to “We” signifies Ginsberg’s yearning to be associated on the same level as Whitman and Lorca. He wants to be recognized and get a seat at the table with these notable writers who have inspired him. Ginsberg is trying to find himself, and looks to Whitman for guidance. He asks, “Are you my Angel?” (Ginsberg), “Where are we going, Walt Whitman? The doors close in an hour. Which way does your beard point tonight?” (Ginsberg). Here, Ginsberg recognizes his mortality with the closing doors symbolizing the end of a chapter with Whitman, and referencing him as his guardian angel. He wants to be “shown the way”, and is so caught up in Whitman’s work that he is lost in his own reality. He continues to idolize Whitman and longs for a continuous journey with him by asking if they will stroll together through the night and addressing him as “dear father”, which suggests a close relationship (Ginsberg). And by calling him “graybeard, lonely old courage-teacher” (Ginsberg), he characterizes Whitman as a wise fellow who is capable of providing him with solutions.
Much of Ginsberg’s criticism of consumerism and materialism is seen as he denotes the capitalist industrial society which emerged in the post World War II society.

He recognizes the prevalence of supermarkets in this time period by noting the “Whole families shopping at night” (Ginsberg) and expressing that the aisles are full of husbands, while the wives and babies are with the fruits (Ginsberg). He walks “in and out of the brilliant stacks of cans” (Ginsberg), criticizing the overconsumption of product and the excess garbage it leaves laying around. And while he denotes the frozen foods as delicacies, Ginsberg is in fact being sarcastic and expressing disgust for them (Ginsberg). Then Walt Whitman asks, “Who killed the pork chops? What price bananas?” (Ginsberg) and Ginsberg knows the store’s owner and employees would be unable to answer him, due to commoditization. So as it returns to Ginsberg’s perspective, he mirrors Whitman’s criticism by talking about “the lost America” (Ginsberg) and referencing the idiom “Keeping up with the Joneses” as he strolls “past blue automobiles in driveways” (Ginsberg). This references the growing importance of materialistic goods and the use of one’s neighbor as a benchmark for social caste and the accumulation of these

goods.
In his lifetime, Whitman was known to be a naturalist (Wilkmanshire). And throughout A Supermarket in California, Ginsberg expresses his fondness of naturalism. He is very nostalgic in his writing, and exhibits his disapproval of manmade objects by associating them with natural objects. This poem is filled with visual images. Ginsberg says, “I walked down the sidestreets under the trees with a headache self-conscious looking at the full moon” (Ginsberg). He gets a headache because he is upset that the man made side streets are intruding on the trees and full moon, which leads to his hunger for Whitman’s literary enumerations (Ginsberg). Ginsberg is getting lost in the nature created by Whitman’s writing. By entering the neon fruit supermarket, he exposes himself to the peaches, avocados, tomatoes and watermelons. Neon fruit means that the fruit is obnoxiously unnatural because natural fruits are not that bright. Later, Ginsberg is back on the streets and says, “The trees add shade to shade, lights out in the houses” (Ginsberg) signifying that the natural trees protect him from the man made lighting in the homes. “[And] what penumbras!” (Ginsberg) Ginsberg describes as casting darkness over the glory of nature.
Ginsberg begins to seek his final guidance from Whitman by asking “what America did you have when Charon quit poling his ferry and you got out on a smoking bank and stood watching the boat disappear on the black waters of Lethe?” (Ginsberg). In Greek mythology, Lethe is a river in Hades that borders the Underworld. Charon guided people across the stream to safety, and if you did not go with him, you would be stuck on the bank wandering aimlessly forever. And drinking from this river would lead to complete forgetfulness, hence the Greek word “lethe”, meaning “oblivion” (Encyclopedia of Greek Mythology; LETHE). This concluding stanza uses a seemingly unrelated anecdote that serves to parallel Walt Whitman’s guidance of Allen Ginsberg through his existential journey. Ultimately, the poem expresses Ginsberg’s existentialism, rejection of consumerism, and fondness of naturalism through the modification of subject pronouns, metaphors, and word choice.

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