In Review: American Literature Series - Ginsberg and Douglas

Since I'm diving into American Literature class beginning this week, I plan to use this opportunity to do some of my reviews about what I am reading. I am thrilled to be in this class. Despite my own struggles with my national identity, I am intrigued to know more about America. This week, two of the pieces that I read were Allen Ginsberg’s Howl and Frederick Doulglass’ Narratives of the Life of Frederick Douglass. The themes of power and individualism that have come to embody American literature are deeply embedded in both. Despite the vastly different time periods in which the authors lived, subtle messages of not merely finding oneself, but working even harder to create one’s self are apparent in both.

Throughout his life, Douglass analyzes the power of a culture that enslaves him. Born in the first half of the nineteenth century, Douglass was born a slave in the south. Despite what might have seemed like a clear place in society, he spent his life negotiating his identity. Perhaps the greatest trait that makes Douglass’ Narrative in keeping with American Literature is his keen ability to go to any lengths to create the identity he was so sure of – that of a free man, an individual. Surely, his choices to trick people to teach him how to read and write, would have earned him a label of “mad” much like the people that Ginsberg refers to in Howl. Or maybe, in his time the equivalent of that was that black people were merely seen as wild and uncivilized, but it equated to the same thing.

Ginsberg clearly fights mainstream notions of normalcy and societal forms of power. He speaks of many powers, all institutional, that include mental health, law, and academia. His opening line includes a reference to madness, and the people that he relates to are none other than folks just like Douglass who had their mind made up about who they were (or their potential), despite societal restrictions, and who were fully prepared to make reality match this identity. Since Colonial Literature, Americans have always been ready to fight for what they believe in; Douglass states “from whence came the spirit I don’t know – I resolved to fight…” (62). Indeed, since the beginning of European settlement, Americans have believed power resides within themselves.

Power intertwines with individualism, because so many mainstream folks would be led to believe that they are who society tells them they are. Douglass and Ginsberg however, examine and analyze what they are told, and dig deeper to find what it is they believe in their souls. Douglass tells of his own personal analysis of religion, and his belief that he was destined to me so much more than a slave; “I may be deemed superstitious, and even egotistical, in regarding this event as a special interposition of divine Providence in my favor. But I should be false to the earliest sentiments of my soul, if I suppressed the opinion. I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and incur my own abhorrence” (27). Ginsberg too expresses his divine power. He speaks of an “ancient heavenly connection” in Howl (7). These sentiments are not very different from the way the Puritans felt, when they built their colonies and Gray points out the ideas of providence that was evident as far back as Colonial times (28-31). In this way, early American works have influenced both Douglass and Ginsberg.

Though underlying messages from early American Literature hold steady in both works, changes are evident too. Douglass refers to the split between the north and the south regarding slavery, and to the industry that has come to characterize the nation by the time he becomes a free man. Ginsberg’s references to madness suggests that so-called progress even beyond industry including technology have changed the American. He suggests that in a way, such things have driven them to lifestyles that are considered mad by the majority – while he seems to feel the true madness is in the modern American majority itself.

Howl is one of my favorite pieces, as I just adore the Beat Writers. Douglass is simply a hero; an inspiration. I can relate to both writers because as I sit here typing in 2015, many things have changed, but America is still a place that is doing just that – ever-evolving, always becoming something new – for better or for worse. And I know my own identity, and I am more than prepared to enact whatever measures needed to carve out a new reality.

~ Peace and Love, Tracey

© Tracey Love, 2015. All rights reserved.

Works CitedDouglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. Project Gutenberg. Web. Accessed 29 Sept. 2015.Ginsberg, Allen. Howl. Project Gutenberg. Web. 29 Accessed Sept. 2015.