Howl

I was quite surprised when I actually enjoyed reading Howl, the famous poem written by Allen Ginsburg for Carl Solomon. It is interesting to me that I actually enjoyed the poem because it is written very similar to Jack Kerouac’s On the Road which I did not enjoy at all. I was curious in what Ginsburg was going to write next on his view of life. This poem was truly a page-turner. The stream of consciousness writing is not usually my cup of tea, but Ginsburg does a great job at making the topics flow well and keeping his readers interesting. 

            It was asked in class whether this poem was a happy one or not, and in my opinion there is an obvious answer. It can be seen from the first stanza of the poem that this is not a happy poem but rather a gloomy one. This poem is ultimately about the misery and anguish of Ginsberg and his peers during the “beat generation.” Stanza after stanza are descriptions of the miserable lives that they are enduring. From homelessness to starvation, these hipsters are just looking for a quick fix to their problems. “Who wondered around and around at midnight in the railroad yard wondering where to go…,” is a quote that I believe perfectly describes their situations. These hipsters don’t live the quintessential American lifestyle, instead they wonder around looking for their salvation, which is described as sex and jazz, though the two don’t usually fix their problems. “Who lounged hungry and lonesome through Houston seeking jazz or sex or soup…,” this quote obviously reinforces my idea. Though they are eagerly searching for jazz and sex thinking it will be a fix to their problems, it is obviously not working. Instead, they are finding a sort of bandage to the problem instead of a cure.

Howl is an illustrative poem in the way that it is easy to come up with pictures of what Ginsburg is describing in your head. This I believe is also a reason of why I enjoyed the poem as much as I did. I am not usually one to enjoy poems, I much rather read a story and get all of the details straight forward, but with Howl I believe that Ginsburg give good descriptions and is able to get his point across to his audience. Howl: A Graphic Novel does a phenomenal job in captivating the audience and drawing them into the true essence of the poem. The illustrations show as much passion and appetite as the poem does keeping the reader entertained throughout the whole thing.

I was extremely surprised to be so drawn into the poem and wanting to learn more about Ginsburg and his peer’s past. I feel that they lived the kind of life that nobody thinks its possible. Though they suffered from poverty and starvation, they lived the life they wanted to live without thinking of the consequences or the opinions of others. These men were brilliant in their own way and I cannot wait to read more about their lives. 

The End of the Road

On the Road has finally come to an end, both the actual book and the class discussions. A long wait it has been. I think I am one of the only people in class that didn’t absolutely love the book. While it was not a terrible read, it definitely was not one of my favorite things to read. To me, the story was extremely confusing. This could have been because of the fact that the one long continuous paragraph was literally driving me insane. Books have paragraphs for a reason Kerouac!

Maybe it is because I was just not interested in the plot, although I feel that with a little help it could have been even more entertaining. A story about a group of friends that set out on different travels not worrying about anyone but themselves is not a story I would normally pick up to read. I feel that the way the story was written it was very easy to get side tracked and start thinking about other things. Some parts gave a perfect amount of detail of the scene where I could stay entertained, but there were other parts that were so long and drawn out that I just could not keep my focus. I kept getting so sidetracked reading the book that it would take me way longer than normal to finish reading the assigned sections. The way that Kerouac would describe and express himself in the story was also extremely distracting to me.

I also had a very big issue with some of the characters in the story, especially Neal Cassady. I think he is one of the most self-absorbed, selfish, and egocentric characters I have ever read about. The sad part is that he is not just a character in a book, but a real person. I cannot imagine being friends with such a selfish human being the way that Jack Kerouac and the rest of the One The Road characters are. The way that he treats the women around him is what really gets to me. It seems that everyone around him is so quick to believe all of his thoughts and beliefs and they are so quick to follow his footsteps. It is almost like nobody has their own mind when they are around him. It is sad to see that such a person is placed on such a high pedestal. It can clearly be seen that Kerouac and some of the other characters views Cassady as some sort of a God, for what reasons I have not been able to figure out.

For this reason is why Kerouac bothers me. Although he is older than Cassady, he always just seems to follow in his footsteps. Instead of creating his own path, he is content with following in Cassady’s. I think that men should be strong and independent and I just don’t see that in Kerouac.

Although I have many complaints about the book, it actually was interesting to me. The fact that these men were able to just pick up and do exactly what they want to do is appealing to me because I know I would never have the courage to do it. I’m more of a follow the rules type a girl, and they’re more of a break the rules type of crew. 

The Selfish Men of The Beats

Being someone who has never read On The Road or ever even heard of Jack Kerouac and the Beats, it has been very difficult to read the controversial story. I have sat here mulling over different scenes and themes trying to sort through my thoughts and feelings about the controversial story. The aspect of On the Road that has been most criticized in the decades following the novel's release has been Kerouac's portrayal of the relationships between men and women. This aspect is also the most interesting to me. I strive in every novel that I read to find a love story that I can relate to or even look up to, so it was no different when reading Kerouac’s book to hope to encounter a love like no other. Though there were a few relationships between a man and a woman seen in the book, it was short of anything that I was expecting. Instead of finding a man praising a woman and thinking she is the most important thing in the world, I find a novel full of womanizing men who use women to their advantage without a thought or care about how they feel or what they deserve.

It is very clearly seen from the beginning of the book to the end that Jack Kerouac, Neal Cassady and their acquaintances are selfish men who are out to get what they want. They are so self absorbed and interesting in living their life their way that they forget to appreciate the people around them, especially the women who give themselves to the men without a second thought. They use the women in this book to no extent. From sex to accompaniment to even a place to stay the night, the men in this novel have no respect for the women around them.

Being family or even having a marriage doesn’t matter to these young men. It ate me up inside to see how many times Kerouac asked his mother to send him money. Instead of being a real man and getting a job, he always relied on his mother to get him out of a tough situation. But what killed me the most was the way that Neal Cassady treated the women in his life. He had no sense of commitment or faithfulness in him. The way that he treated Carolyn was heartbreaking. I hated seeing him just walk away from her and their child without even a fight. Though his defense is that she “kicked him out,” it is a little ridiculous that he would walk away from his family without even a second look back. The self-centeredness seen from this man is incredible.

The relationships between men and women in this novel are extremely interesting to anyone that is able to get through the story. All the men care about in this novel is themselves and living their lives the way that they want. There are no gentlemen in this novel, but little boys who need to grow up and learn how to treat a lady.