A Comparison of Ginsberg and Kerouac Essay -- comparison compare contr

A Comparison of Ginsberg and Kerouac The 1950s saw a period of great material prosperity in the United States. aft(prenominal) World War II G.I.s came back to take charge of the family again. Women no longer had to work and could return to the home to nurse their newborn babies. Housing, automobiles, and black-and-blue picket fences were in high demand. Televisions became commonplace, making possible the rapid dispersion of visual information- not to mention the sitcom. McCarthy had started to purge the U.S. of those pesky Communists, ensuring a pop future for all. While the blacks, of course, could not realize it, virtually every ane else saw the fulfillment of the American Dream. In their writings of the mid-1950s, Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac describe an America recently converted to the religion of the T.V. Ginsberg witnesses and records big blue Buicks in driveways of identical incase houses. With Walt Whitman he watches whole families peruse the p all(pre nominal)es in late-night supermarkets. Conversely, Kerouac describes a spiritual tour that takes him back and forth across the U.S. Both Ginsberg and Kerouac use Buddhist ideals and methodology to criticize the current state of American society. They seek after a more honest and equal American Dream. Ginsberg and Kerouac ar an inte substituteing simile because of their unique symbiotic relationship. Not only was each a literary influence on the other, but they actually appear in each others works. In Ginsbergs Sunflower Sutra, he and Kerouac sit between a stun and a river to watch the sun set over San Francisco. Kerouac points out a sunflower, and Ginsberg begins one of his mystical visions ... The primary image in the poem is a ... ...g to live in a real world. He does what he can, and gives the rest up for port wine. Kerouac and Ginsberg envisioned a dream that no one can live up to. Like everyone else, they are good at telling you whats wrong, but cannot come up with the right answer or so as quickly. From the evidence of the texts, I would give Kerouac more credit than Ginsberg, because he was less hypocritical and made his best attempt at stretchability his spiritual goal. Ginsberg, however, definitely did his part in pinpointing the errors of a generation. Consequently, all are Holy and Beautiful. Works Cited Ginsberg, Allen. Sunflower Sutra. Howl and other Poems. San Francisco City Lights, 1956. Rpt. in The New American Poetry. Ed. Donald M. Allen. New York Grove Press, 1960. 179-181. Kerouac, Jack. The Dharma Bums. New York Penguin Books, 1976.