The Depiction of Sexuality and Social Injustice in Howl, a Poem by Allen Ginsberg

Through even a cursory perusal of Allen Ginsberg's poem "Howl" (as well as the rest of his "Other Poems") one can see that the poet is writing from a place of immense frustration. More specifically, "Howl" expresses Ginsberg's anger with the conformity-obsessed, fear-fueled culture of the 1950's United States by presenting the reader with a lengthy list of images depicting exactly what society does to those who are divergent in one way or another.

The reader encounters the mentally ill, those with radical political beliefs (which, in Ginsberg's time and ours means communists), drugs addicts, and, of course, the sexually deviant. Ginsberg provides real life examples of people who suffered real life consequences of the cultural emphasis on conventional morality, such as Carl Solomon (for whom the poem was written) and his own mother, who was in and out of psychiatric hospitals for most of Allen's childhood and who, as he revealed in later interviews, inspired most of his writing.

Of all the social injustice that Ginsberg takes on "Howl," perhaps one of the closest to his own heart was the depiction of sexuality, both in terms of behavior and sexual orientation. A poll conducted by CBS news in 1967 as part of a story on the growing visibility of homosexuality in American society found that Americans considered homosexuality "more harmful to society than adultery, abortion, or prostitution". On an institutional level, homosexuality was treated as a disease, grounds for denial of access to opportunities such as employment and education, or even a crime. In fact, anti-sodomy legislation was not found unconstitutional in the United States until 2003.

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The cultural feeling towards homosexuality was one of mistrust if not outright hatred (the term "was" is used loosely here). Ginsberg himself spent time in a mental hospital during his college years where medical professionals tried to "cure" him of his homosexuality, which likely inspired both "Howl" and his later work "Kaddish". Given a cultural climate so fearful and antagonistic towards homosexuality (as well as all other non-heterosexual orientations), it is easy to see how someone living in the closet could be pushed to the barely-contained explosion of anger seen in "Howl."

But, when it comes to descriptions of sexuality, especially same-sex male sexual encounters in "Howl," anger is not all there is to it. If frustration is one side of the coin, ecstasy is the other. Obscenity controversy aside, Ginsberg speaks of those "who let themselves be fucked in the ass by saintly motorcyclists and screamed with joy". On one hand, his choice of wording in this instance (as in many, many other instances throughout his poetry) is meant to be shocking to the prudish populations whose conservative sexual mores he was writing in rebellion against.

On the other hand, the idea expressed here was and remains a reality for Ginsberg and those like him. In an interview given several years after writing "Howl," Ginsberg said of his book that it is not just his way of "coming out of the closet" but a way of acknowledging "the basic reality of homosexual joy". In including images of same-sex union Ginsberg seeks to reclaim sexual pleasure for homosexuals, not just make "squares" uncomfortable (though that is certainly a nice bonus).

Like Whitman before him, Ginsberg emphasizes the inherent goodness of the body and sexual expression as a way to foster human connection and union. But, unlike Whitman whose ideology is more optimistic, Ginsberg uses polarized religious imagery to show how the forces of society work to oppress the expression of joyful sexuality among homosexuals and others. For example, as previously mentioned, he describes various sexual partners as "saintly motorcyclists" and "human seraphim, the sailors, caresses of Atlantic and Caribbean love". Rather than being seen as dirty or immoral, the lovers are presented as angelic, pure, and driven by love.

A few lines later he speaks of those who have lost their "loveboys" to the Fates, figures from Greek mythology who were said to control a person's destiny from birth to death (much as the machinations of bourgeois culture did in Ginsberg's eyes), one of whom is "the one-eyed shrew of the heterosexual dollar". Clearly, the homosexual (or, at least, same-sex) lovers are presented here as gentle and tragic. Their physical relationship is given divine approval, but is torn apart by those driven by greed instead of love. Heteronormativity is merely an invention of the ruling class used to oppress the free expression of sexuality.

Also of note in this respect is the comparison of "Howl's" second section to the postscript. These two pieces are strikingly similar in terms of structure. Both rely heavily on the repetition of phrases and use a single word as a lens through which to view aspects of an overall structure. In "Howl" section two, Ginsberg repeatedly references "Moloch," an Ammonite demon (or god, depending on the mythology) of greed that demanded child sacrifice. It is through this lens of predatory avarice that Ginsberg presents the aspects of society that discourage authentic human connection. For example, unlike the bikers and sailors of section one, in American society "love is endless oil and stone! Moloch whose soul is electricity and banks! Moloch whose poverty is the specter of genius! Moloch whose fate is a cloud of sexless hydrogen!".

This scathing observation is juxtaposed by his repeated use of the word "holy" in the postscript. Here, again, like Whitman in Leaves of Grass, Ginsberg deals specifically with the inherent goodness of the body, declaring "The soul is holy! The skin is holy! The nose is holy! The tongue and cock and hand and asshole holy!”. Again, the use of somewhat vulgar language here could be considered distasteful to some, but the impact of the words goes beyond mere shock value. Ginsberg goes on to say that "Everything is holy! everybody's holy! everywhere is holy! everyday is in eternity! Everyman's an angel!". The systemic violence perpetuated by "Moloch" is inconsistent with Ginsberg's view of what humanity has the potential to be once the barriers of shame and heteronormativity are stripped away; that is to say, every person is holy. It is "society" that is broken.

For all that "Howl" is intended to grab the reader's attention through in-your-face use of explicit language and gritty images of drug abuse, insanity, suicide, and sexual promiscuity, it would be unfair to categorize it as a wholly pessimistic work. After all, a rant is hardly worth the effort if the speaker does not also have a vision worth fighting for. As with many of the Beat Poets, and many of the artists that would follow during the subsequent decades, Ginsberg believed in the doctrine of unrestricted self-expression. For a homosexual person, that means presenting their sexuality exactly as it is, for better or for worse.

During the obscenity trial following the publication of "Howl and Other Poems," much was made about the use of the phrase "fucked in the ass" without much attention being paid to the phrase "screamed with joy." But, as Judge Clayton W. Horn said, "The answer is that life is not encased in one formula whereby everyone acts the same or conforms to a particular pattern". And, though the language presented in the poem may be coarse, the relationships between homosexual men depicted therein are not. Or, at least, they are no more or less good and pure and joyful as the heterosexual relationships that our media is inundated with.

Now, as in 1957, "Howl" presents the reader with the opportunity to look at their culture from the point of view of those for whom the system does not work. It calls for equal parts compassion and anger, regardless of whether or not the reader can identify with the figures the poem presents. Ginsberg intended for his work to be an "emotional time-bomb that would continue exploding...[the] military-industrial-nationalistic complex" well into the future, but it could just as easily be seen as a love letter to the oppressed.

Later in the collection, Ginsberg includes a shorter poem that shows the gentler side to his call to arms in "Howl." In "Song" he says: "The weight of the world is love. Under the burden of solitude, under the burden of dissatisfaction the weight, the weight that we carry is love". So, if the reader finds themselves uncomfortable with the subject matter presented in "Howl," perhaps they should stop and ask themselves why.

Works Cited

1. Ginsberg, Allen. Howl, and Other Poems. San Francisco: City Lights Pocket hop, 1956. Print.
2. Lawrence v. Texas. Supreme Court of the United States. 26 June 2003. Print.
3. Raskin, Jonah. American Scream: Allen Ginsberg's Howl and the Making of the Beat Generation. Berkeley: U of California, 2004. Print.
4. The People of California v. Lawrence Ferlinghetti. San Francisco Municipal Court. October 1957. Print.
5. Timberg, Scott. "Before 'Howl,' the Hospital." Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 07 Jan. 2007. Web. 01 Apr. 2015.
6. Wallace, Mike. "The Homosexuals." CBS Reports.CBS. 7 Mar. 1967. Television.

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