Protest In Allen Ginsberg's Poem Howl

Protest in Allen Ginsberg’s Poem “Howl” The Fifties was an era of paradoxes in America. Indeed, while it was a time of peace and prosperity, it struggled to avoid the unease and fear it generated. It attained its reputation for being a time of conformity, yet still carried an undercurrent of rebellion from those who were discontent. Among the people of the Fifties generation, the Beat writers effectively reflected their fight and influence for non-conformity. The writers, who came to the conclusion of all of society’s corruptions, made efforts to protect and protest alongside the poor and the weak and protest alongside them. In “Howl” by Beat writer Allen Ginsberg, he expresses disapproval of to the social forces predominant in America.

Ginsberg states that they “let themselves be fucked in the ass by saintly motorcyclists, and screamed with joy” (92-93). He shamelessly provides a graphic image of homosexuals. There is a use of religious language with unusual types of people throughout the poem. Ginsberg combines “saintly” with “motorcyclists” in an unexpected context, as if he wants society to re-evaluate their traditional values. The all-American dream of a nuclear family is known to be a family with traditional structure, consisting of a father, mother and two children. Ginsberg displays his detest for the dominant straight culture. Even though they “screamed with joy”, their sexual lives suffers in loneliness as they could not find peace with a lost loved one nor society. Furthermore, Ginsberg expresses the role of women in a traditional household; “who lost their loveboys to the three old shrews of fate the one eyed shrew of the heterosexual dollar the one eyed shrew that winks out of the womb and the one eyed shrew that does nothing but sit on her ass and snip the intellectual golden threads of the craftsman's loom” (103-106). He furthers his point of the “three old shrews of fate” as an allusion to the Three Fates. The outcasts of society “lost their loveboys” to the first “shrew”, which is “the heterosexual dollar”. Heterosexual men were the only money makers of the day, pressuring the outcasts to form a traditional family. The second “shrew” was the one that “winks out of the womb”, which meant providing for the children. The last “shrew” was to provide for the woman who “does nothing but sit on her ass and snip the intellectual golden threads of the craftsman’s loom”. Ginsberg uses this allusion to explain the unnecessary oppression imposed by society when in fact these men could be happily in love with a person of their own sex. He defends homosexuality and raises fingers on the