Beat Generation
The Howl of a Generation The "Beat Movement" in modern literature has become an important period in the history of literature and society in America. Incorporating influences such as jazz, art, literature, philosophy, and religion, the Beat writers created a new and prophetic vision of modern life and changed the way an entire generation of people see the world. That generation is now aging and its representative voices are becoming lost to eternity, but the message is alive and well. The Beats have forever altered the nature of American consciousness.
The impact of the Beats would certainly not have been as universal or influential if not for the writing of one poem; "Howl" by Allen Ginsberg: I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix, angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of nightÂ…(1-3) These lines, perhaps the most well known in 20th century poetry, serve as a thematic statement for a poem that offers a new way of thinking, a sense of hope of escape from the "Molochs" of society. The story of the poem's history serves well as an account of the birth of the Beat Generation. Ginsberg's life leading up to the writing of "Howl," the actual creation of the poem, its legendary first reading, and the aftermath of its public debut all figure prominently into the history of the literary movement. One can understand the impact of the poem on the Beat Generation by studying not only the chronology of its past, but its intricate and unique structure as well as its themes and ultimate message. Following is an examination of the poem as the great expression of Beat defiance, beginning with a short history of the poem. Ginsberg's Beat career began at Columbia University in 1943 where he met Jack Kerouac, William S. Burroughs, Neal Cassidy and others....
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