Analysis Of Howl By Ginsberg

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I do believe that Ginsberg’s poem, “Howl” suggests that the repressive atmosphere of the 1950s drove homosexuals and others who had to hide their true identities insane. The poem starts by saying “I saw the best minds of by generation destroyed by madness” (line 1) and continues on by diving into details describing those people and how their minds were destroyed. The repressive atmosphere of the 1950s is strongly shown throughout the poem when several people are described changing or hiding what they are for one reason or another. For example, line 40 discusses boys who “…lost their loveboys…” to the “…one eyed shrew of the heterosexual dollar…”. This could be interpreted as the boys decided to hide or stop being gay to maintain their careers