Everything is holy and every man's an angel

          One of the questions brought up about Howl in class was whether the poem was happy or not. At first I wasn't sure. The poem definitely involves suffering, focusing much of its attention on the suffering Ginsberg and many of his peers endured in mid-20^th century America. Most are in poverty and can rarely afford to eat, and wear tattered clothing. His peers or “angelheaded hipsters” are kicked out of universities or choose to leave because they find their way of thinking scorned by so called intellectuals. The hipsters dwell deep into drugs and end up hysterical messes because they've been so disillusioned by society and want to find an ultimate meaning to it all. They’ll spend hours searching for it and the only comforts they can find are sex and jazz (which even then doesn't always work-homosexuality could land you in a mental hospital or jail).

                Part two of the poem adds to the already bleak outlook for the hipsters by introducing Moloch.  Moloch is said to be a “sphinx of cement and aluminum” that devours the hipsters’ creativity and imagination (similar to how the theological Moloch devours children), its blood to be “running money”, and is ultimately the “judger of men.” It becomes increasingly clear that Moloch is meant to represent America. Ginsberg views American society’s obsession with capitalist gain, tendency to quell or crush anything that extends outside conventional bounds, and love of war to be as frightening as others would find the demon Moloch. It destroys visionary ideas and replaces them with processed junk. America is depicted as a soulless machine, full of nothing but death, a lust for power, and superficiality.

                Despite all of this, I think the poem is ultimately hopeful and maybe even uplifting. If someone is experiencing the feelings of hopelessness and being “beat” like the hipsters, it means they have seen through the illusions and house of card like societal structures that America has put up. Moloch becomes less of a threat to those who are aware of it. The “madman, bum and angel” are all on the same level. Humanity can begin to question everything around them and learn to be free thinkers.

                The poem is an exaltation of those who are outside societal norms. With American culture, especially during that time, revering conformity and sameness, it’d be easy to sell out and quietly live a mediocre existence, never knowing true bliss or satisfaction. However, you could choose to let your freak flag fly and value your individualism, like the hipsters learned to do. There is no need to buy into a system of capitalism, greed, vapid consumerism, and hollow industries if they don’t work for you.

                Ginsberg valued unrestrained independence.  His own life was full of varying degrees of madness and unconventional behavior, including seeing apparitions of the poet Blake. The process and aftermath of disillusionment is undoubtedly not fun; the hipsters agonize over not being able to find meaning in anything and are often persecuted for their lifestyles or beliefs. However it is rewarding in the freedom you obtain. 

Final Thought on On the Road

          I like that our class came to a similar conclusion on Kerouac, that he is a huge follower. That had been something that I picked up while reading and I am glad I was not the only one to see it. Though Kerouac is the narrator and main character, the story is more about Neal Cassady, and ends up being a character study of him.

                Neal Cassady is endlessly fascinating to me because he does not seem like he could have ever been a real person. Neal just seems like a force of nature at times, taking whatever he wants and destroying things incidentally. Even though he is self-centered and even despicable at times, you cannot help but want to follow where he goes.  He has an overwhelming personality, presence, and energy that cause people to like him no matter how often he disappoints him.

                I am curious as to how much of the story is fictional. Neal Cassady in reality led an astonishingly full and interesting life, especially after his trips with Kerouac. He and several others formed a group called the Merry Pranksters who traveled all over the country in a multicolored bus, promoting the use of narcotics, especially hallucinogenics.  Their traveling caused them to become American icons and they soon became associated with many other well-known people, including Hunter S. Thompson, the Hell’s Angels, and the Grateful Dead. As noted in class, Cassady’s novel was not published until after his death. Cassady became an icon and a part of the Beat Generation through sheer personality, not through any literary means.

                It is no wonder it is easy for Kerouac to make him into a god like figure. His antics only get more insane and bombastic as the novel continues. When Kerouac spends more time with him and it becomes apparent that Neal uses and abuses everyone he meets, it is almost sad to watch Cassady as an idol fall. Neal is exhausting to be around, always emotional (every situation is life or death, and either a complete tragedy or the greatest thing to ever happen to anyone), always getting into legal trouble, an adrenaline junky with few regards to others’ feelings, and always needs money from his friends. He could easily be compared to a small child.

                As noted in the text though “God exists without qualms.” Neal could never be as intriguing and as likeable as he was if he were a normal person. It is because his actions are so over the top and that he is so passionate about life in general that he draws people to him. I would argue that despite Kerouac’s eventual (and completely understandable) disappointment in Cassady for failing to live up to the image he had created of him in his head, Cassady still retains his god-like status. The closing words “I think of Neal Cassady” could not be more fitting. Neal has become ingrained and immortalized into the public consciousness as deep as the concept of the road trip itself. 

On the Road-Post #1

Outside of hearing about how there was an upcoming film adaptation, I had only vaguely heard of On the Road before sitting down to read it. One of the things that struck me the hardest was that most of the characters were unapologetically unlikeable. I don’t have a problem with that because it shouldn’t matter if a character’s likeable or not, as long as they’re interesting or well developed within the story, but it is unusual to read something where it doesn’t strive to get you to like and root for at least some of the characters.

Going off from this, one of the most interesting aspects to me is how Jack and Neal manage to vilify women throughout the story. They’re both users that leech off others’ hospitality and resources, and this especially accounts for how they treat women. Jack talks about marrying several women throughout the novel (including Beatrice and Pauline), but ultimately leaves them when he becomes interested in something else. He’ll have sex with them and wax poetic lovely phrases about how great their lives will be together but they never keep his attention for long. Their feelings about the relationship are never taken into account and Jack doesn’t particularly care about what happens to them after he leaves them. He doesn’t even treat his own mother right. It’s clear that Jack loves her, but he constantly takes advantage of her by asking for money. Jack is an adult and it’s unfair for him to assume his mother needs to keep providing for him and pay for his whims whenever he wants to travel across the country.

Neal is much worse in his treatment of women though. He, like Jack, also uses women as disposable sex objects, but takes it to a much higher level. Neal initially leaves Carolyn and his child to be with Louanne, has multiple affairs with other people but takes offense when Louanne does it, goes back to Carolyn, then leaves her again.  Neal has no regard for their feelings or financial statuses (Carolyn is stuck with their child to provide for and he leaves Louanne in several places where she’d have a difficult time trying to contact him). His relationship with Louanne is also exhausting in how many double standards takes place. Neal, along with Jack, is constantly referring to her as a “whore” because she has sex with men other than him. This is almost comical in its hypocrisy because Neal sleeps with plenty of people besides her when they’re married, he encouraged her to sleep with Jack, and if anyone is a “whore” in the story it’d be Neal who literally slept with men for money.

Despite this blatant misogyny, Jack in particular dreams of meeting a nice girl and settling down one day. They both even cheer on Jack’s mother when she talks about how the world could become more peaceful if men would ask women for forgiveness.  My favorite part of the story that I’ve gotten to is Helen brutally telling Neal off for his abandonment of Carolyn (it doesn’t matter that she asked him to leave; he still needed to go back, apologize, and be there for his child in some capacity).  It just textualizes a lot of the frustrations I have with Neal.