Howl

The first part of “Howl” is a graphic description of the torment of the best minds of his generation, who are made to experience every kind of pain and longing to the point that they become mad. It is clear that the minds that Ginsberg talks about have something to say but cannot speak freely because no one listens to them and no one understands. In the second part of the poem, the reason for the madness is explained by the imagery of Moloch, and what it represents.

                Moloch represents the rigidness of life and how no one is ever free from the clutches of Moloch; children scream under stairways, boys sob in armies, and old men weep in parks. Moloch is continuously expending youth and does not care for happiness or free will. Moloch has its rules and sets of expectations and as long as people allow Moloch to bash open their skulls and eat up their brains, they can carry Moloch on their backs. People who break down crying in white gymnasiums, who lone through the streets seeking visionary angels, who howl on their knees in the subway, who walk all night with their shoes full of blood, who cut their wrists three times successively unsuccessfully, are aberrations who have resisted Moloch who need to be silenced, or calmed, or put away. Moloch is ugly, and “Howl” is the cry of those who will eventually transcend the boatload of sensitive b.s and escape into the street.

                Most of the people in the first part of “Howl” did not live to see their breakthroughs, some of them never even had breakthroughs at all, and Rockland is where these people exist as Rockland represents a place where souls are lost and life ends. Ginsberg expresses hope that someday angelic bombs will be dropped, and the walls of Rockland will collapse, and they will wake up out of the coma, and they will all be free.

                Despair and hope are two of the major recurring themes in “Howl”, and entrapment is the source of this despair. Ginsberg resolves the notion of despair in the first poem by addressing the cause of despair in the second which is Moloch and expressing that hope will bring about freedom. In the third part he resolves the notion of entrapment by addressing Rockland and expressing hope that everyone will be free someday.