America By Ginsberg Essay

As an individual reads the poem written, “America” ,by Allen Ginsberg they can identify the close representation to several historical events happening during that specific time. During this time period, the initial major event was the dropping of the first atomic bomb during war. Following the dropping of the atomic bomb, a highly criticized war broke out in the nation of Vietnam. Amongst this war torn era, two nations found themselves in the middle of what they would call a Cold War. Throughout the poem the author shows his dissatisfaction toward America. Ginsberg expresses his sentiments about major historical events when he begins his poem referencing the atomic bombs. His feelings are apparent with the following statement, “Go fuck yourself with your atomic bombs” (Ginsberg, 1956). Just over a decade earlier America utilized the first atomic bomb during a war waged with Japan. The only two to ever be dropped in history caused a death toll estimated to be one hundred and thirty five thousand people (bbc.co.uk, 2015). Some of those lives were expected to have just

This proved to cause a great deal of tension between the military fighting the war and their home nation. The reason this was going on was due to the fact they could see all of the negative effects of war. According to Allen Ginsberg “America when will we end the human war” (1956). Numbers what numbers? Death? Disapproval? that have been reported range from 1.3 million to as many as 3.9 million (Bia, 2014). This shows why Ginsberg would be so upset with the amount of people dying and why he declares it a human war. In addition, this was a war waged on very little evidence and very little need for the conflict. Ginsberg’s disgust did not end with his disapproval of the Vietnam War, he also shows his disgust with America when he writes about the Cold