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America By Ginsberg Analysis

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Identity is an important part of a person’s life, no matter where it comes from. Identity distinguishes one person from another and makes us all individuals through aspects such as skin color or personal beliefs. A person’s identity can be based on many aspects of their life; whether it comes from their family history or something they were taught, or from their own personal exploration of themselves. The poem “America” by Allen Ginsburg shows how political views and opinions on current events can shape one’s identity through the feeling, or lack thereof, of patriotism for their country. In A New Generation Overthrows Gender, author Jon Brooks discusses a form of gender identity that deviates from what is considered “normal” and how traditional …show more content…

Ginsburg’s poem is connected to my American identity as a political person who also questions America’s roles and decisions in current events; and like Ginsburg, I too am losing my sense of patriotism for my country. While I don’t quite feel as strongly as Ginsberg does about certain topics, I do relate to his feelings about them enough for me to identify as a pessimistically political person similar to him. For me it is nearly impossible to watch or read the news and not see a story about America’s affairs that is insane and terrifying to the point I think “America are you being sinister or is this some form of practical joke?” (1). When watching the current situation involving Russia unfold on the TV screen I can’t help but feel pessimistic about the status of our country; with the president’s ignorance to the dangers of this kind of alliance with such a strong world power and the clear signs of meddling with the presidential election in addition to everything else, everything about the country seems quite bleak. I can just tell the plans of “them bad Russians…” (2), it’s really not hard to see “the Russia wants to eat us alive. The Russia’s power mad.” (2). In contrast to my feelings about the White House, much of my political identity also comes from my search for different news. I often read articles about news stories that no longer circulate on news channels; like an account from a neglected Native American reservation or an update from the Flint water crisis in Michigan. Stories like these affirm my suspicions about America’s habit to turn a blind eye to older news stories and “say nothing about my prisons nor the millions of underprivileged who live in my flower pots” (2). I believe my pessimistic political tendencies and

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