Howl Blog

The 60’s culminated as the climax of the lost generation’s moral shifts and resulted in the most prevalent time of the counter-culture movement (Singal). A movement that poet Alan Ginsberg was a major leader and figure of. He was so not just in writing, but also in action, living out the convictions of his work, often vividly. Another one of the most prominent personalities recalled with any mention of the 60’s and the famous protests and political movements of the time is the musician Bob Dylan. Both these artists were incredibly influential during the beat movement, but Ginsberg released a lot of his works during the 50’s and needs to be looked at as an influence on Dylan’s work.
Finger pointing has always been the two words most associated with Dylan, and especially his early career, most specifically the album “The Times Are A-Changin.” Nearly every song on the album has sharp political comments. The themes on this album greatly reflected the attitude of the young adult population of the time, all gathering in Greenwich Village, in New York. This album came out in 1964. On the other coast, and nearly a decade earlier Ginsberg wrote, “Howl.” This poem is one of the landmarks of writing in the “beat generation” and perfectly embodies the changing mindset of people at that time. Ginsberg refers to the characters of this poem as “the best minds of my generation, destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked.” He then goes on to discuss these characters in depth, revealing them as psychotics, druggies, bums, and overall the rejects of normal society. He goes on to imply political unrest often throughout the poem, such as when a character “burned cigarette holes in their arms protesting/the narcotic haze of Capitalism.” Dylan’s song “With God on Our Side” touches on many of the same themes as Howl, mocking many of America’s fallacies and concluding each stanza by justifying America’s actions because it is with “God on our side.” He strongly focuses his attack on war, displaying the resonating effects of the World Wars. These wars often show up in Ginsberg’s works as well.
Although Dylan is the easiest to compare to Ginsberg, the 60’s were filled with thousands of people fueled by Ginsberg’s words. He was a “a 1950s champion of causes later embraced by the 1960s counterculture: freedom from sexual repression and traditional behavior; freedom to engage in recreational drug use; rejection of authority and censorship; rejection of the military-industrial complex.” (Allen Ginsberg Howl Criticism)He represented everything that wasn’t traditional at his time, and people were drawn to his spirit. The latter half of that decade featured numerous protests that defined the counter-culture movement, and Ginsberg was usually found at the center of them, especially involving the Vietnam War. These protests were often started by college students, or college-aged adults and they were all undoubtedly affected at one point by the works of Ginsberg or Jack Kerouac, and their mischievous stories, chronicling journeys across the country and the like.

Works Cited
Allen Ginsberg Howl Criticism. 1 1 2009. 16 10 2009 .
Singal, Daniel Joseph. "Towards a Definition of American Modernism." n.d. 112-129.