American Literature II Selected Collection ll Brain Tech Tutorial II Free for All

Allen Ginsberg was an acclaimed poet and a leading figure of the Beat Generation whose radical literary works and advocacy for social change left an indelible mark on American counterculture. Ginsberg first came to public attention in 1956 with the publication of Howl and Other Poems (City Lights Books).

“Howl,” also known as “Howl for Carl Solomon,” is a long-lined poem in the tradition of Walt Whitman and an outcry of rage and despair against a destructive, abusive society. The poem’s raw, honest language and its “Hebraic-Melvillian bardic breath,” as Ginsberg called it, stunned many traditional critics. James L. Dickey, for instance, referred to “Howl” as “a whipped-up state of excitement” and concluded that “it takes more than this to make poetry.” 

Other critics responded to “Howl” more positively. Richard Eberhart, for example, called “Howl” “a powerful work, cutting through to dynamic meaning…It is a howl against everything in our mechanistic civilization which kills the spirit…Its positive force and energy come from a redemptive quality of love.” Appraising the impact of “Howl,” Paul Zweig noted that it “almost singlehandedly dislocated the traditionalist poetry of the 1950s.”

On March 25, 1957, customs officials seized 520 copies of Howl that were being imported from England by claiming that the book was obscene. In June, Shig Murao, the City Lights bookstore manager, was arrested and jailed for selling Howl to an undercover San Francisco police officer. Poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti was subsequently arrested for publishing the book.The ensuing trial attracted national attention, as prominent literary figures such as Mark Schorer, Kenneth Rexroth, and Walter Van Tilburg Clark spoke in defense of Howl. Schorer testified that “Ginsberg uses the rhythms of ordinary speech and also the diction of ordinary speech. I would say the poem uses necessarily the language of vulgarity.” Clark called Howl “the work of a thoroughly honest poet, who is also a highly competent technician.” The testimony eventually persuaded Judge Clayton W. Horn to rule that Howl was not obscene. The qualities cited in its defense helped make Howl the manifesto of the Beat Movement and pave the way for other challenging works to be published. 

Ginsberg went on to publish many books after Howl, including Kaddish and Other Poems (City Lights, 1961), Planet News: 1961–1967 (City Lights, 1968), and The Fall of America: Poems of These States, 1965–1971 (City Lights, 1973), which won the National Book Award.

Often, Ginsberg’s poems contain references to his early childhood and young adulthood. Born in Newark, New Jersey, to a Jewish family, he grew up in nearby Paterson. Both of his parents, Louis and Naomi Ginsberg, were members of the New York literary counterculture of the 1920s. Louis was a schoolteacher and a published poet. Naomi was a supporter of the communist party and would bring her sons along with her to party meetings. She had a mental illness and was in and out of mental hospitals throughout Ginsberg’s childhood and adulthood. In Allen Ginsberg: A Biography (Virgin Books, 2000), Barry Miles observed, “Naomi’s illness gave Allen an enormous empathy and tolerance for madness, neurosis, and psychosis.” “Kaddish,” a poem similar in style and form to “Howl,” is based on the traditional Jewish prayer for the dead and tells the life story of Ginsberg’s mother, Naomi. The poet’s complex feelings for his mother, colored by her struggle with mental illness, are at the heart of this long-lined poem. It is considered to be one of Ginsberg’s finest: Thomas F. Merrill called it “Ginsberg at his purest and perhaps at his best”; Louis Simpson referred to it as “a masterpiece.” Ginsberg’s experiences with his mother’s mental illness and institutionalization are also frequently referred to in “Howl.”

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, written by Mark Twain in 1884, is one of the most important and controversial novels in American literature. Set along the Mississippi River before the Civil War, it follows a young boy named Huck Finn as he escapes from his abusive father and sets out on a raft journey with Jim, an enslaved man running away to freedom.

Their journey down the river becomes more than just an adventure — it’s a powerful exploration of friendship, morality, and freedom. As Huck and Jim float through towns and face danger, Huck struggles with what society has taught him about race and what he knows in his heart is right. His growing respect and care for Jim show his quiet rebellion against a world built on injustice.

Twain fills the novel with humor, vivid dialects, and unforgettable characters, but beneath the comedy lies a deep criticism of hypocrisy, racism, and greed in American society. The river becomes a symbol of freedom — a place where Huck and Jim can escape the corrupt rules of the land.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is more than a boy’s adventure story — it’s a journey toward moral awakening and one of literature’s most honest portraits of the American conscience.