17 pages • 34 minutes read
America
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Background
Historical Context: The Cold War
Ginsberg’s political commentary in the poem reflects on many contemporary issues in the 1950s. Most of these issues evolved out of World War II as Russia and the United States emerged as the two superpowers of the world, leading to the Cold War. This conflict pitted American and Soviet values against one another, including capitalism versus communism, liberalism versus Soviet mentality, and democracy versus autocracy. The conflict bled into all aspects of life and led to a constant state of fear and paranoia that would lead to many consequences still felt in the 21st century.
Ginsberg was particularly upset with three aspects of American Cold War strategy: nuclear proliferation, imperialism, and censorship at home. Ginsberg viewed the development of nuclear weapons as not only a physical threat to the world, but also as an existential threat to the spirit of humanity. In foreign affairs, he took great issue with America’s interventions in other countries in an attempt to stop the spread of communism, including in Korea and later in Vietnam. And closer to home, Ginsberg believed Cold War mentality contributed to the conservative atmosphere of 1950s America, an atmosphere rife with racism, anti-gay bias, anti-drug sentiment, and consumerism.
These frustrations run deep throughout most of Ginsberg’s poetry, including a famous section in his most famous poem, “Howl,” where he describes American society as beholden to Moloch, a demon-like entity that stands for all the ills Ginsberg saw in the world: consumerism, paranoia, isolation, and the loss of the human spirit to an indifferent and commercialized world.
Most of Ginsberg’s sentiments led to controversy, and his early work was famously banned for being “obscene.” Ginsberg embraced this label, though, and was committed to being as honest and explicit as he could in his poetry, including uncensored depictions of gay sex, drug use, and other activities most Americans at the time considered to be indecent.
More than anything, the Cold War resulted in a collective mindset that pushed a very conservative mentality, and Ginsberg’s poetry aims to undercut that in favor of something he considered to be truer and more beautiful.
Authorial Context: Spontaneous Mind
Inspired by Jack Kerouac and the non-literary Neal Cassady, Ginsberg adopted a writing style that he identified as “spontaneous mind.” This was similar to Kerouac’s mantra of “first thought/best thought” and similar to the established literary convention of stream of consciousness. While stream of consciousness is a literary technique that attempts to portray the vast, often unrelated thoughts of a narrator, first thought/best thought took that device and applied it to the actual writer. Famously, Kerouac is said to have written his novel On the Road in one draft on one large scroll in a drug-fueled manic writing session. While this is mostly hyperbole, Ginsberg was a great proponent of the approach and claimed to apply it to most of his poetry.
The genesis of this approach came to Ginsberg and Kerouac because of a letter they had read by their mutual friend Neal Cassady. Cassady’s writing was so energetic and authentic that Ginsberg sought to capture that spirit in his own poetry. Combined with his experiments with non-traditional lines associated with the cadence of the breath, and with his admiration for Whitman, Ginsberg developed a unique form of free verse poetry that did not bow to set rhythms, sensical narrative progression, or coherent imagery.
While this philosophy greatly influenced Ginsberg, it is worth noting that his published poems were rarely first drafts. “America,” for example, had a completely different ending in its original form, and even “Howl” went through considerable revisions. Nevertheless, the energy and the spirit of the first draft, what Wordsworth called the spontaneous outflow of powerful feelings, is still present in all of Ginsberg’s poetry.
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