Howl in Anger: Connections between two post-war works

In the following entry, I will attempt to make a connection between John Osborne’s play Look Back in Anger and Allen Ginsberg’s poem Howl.

[Post-war society]

First of all, I will provide a broad contextualization of these works. Both were published in 1956 and are considered to be great works of literature to this day. They were characterized for representing the thoughts of post-war society. Ginsberg was associated to an American group of writers that was dubbed the Beat Generation. They were known for not following standard writing methods, for exploring topics related to the human condition, and also for experimenting with drugs and sex. Whereas Osborne’s play is so strongly realist, that the generation of writers who had the same harsh style were named the “angry young men.”

Now, I will relate a few lines of the poem with moments or ideas that are conveyed throughout the play.

[Allen Ginsberg]

From the first line of Allen Ginsberg’s Howl: “I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked,” we can see the same thoughts that Jimmy Porter has about the world. He is a highly educated man who considers that British society has destroyed or betrayed him, denying him success just because he belongs to the working class. Porter takes out his frustration on his wife, who he sees as everything that is wrong with the world, because she comes from a background of privilege. He considers himself a great mind and mockingly calls his wife Lady Pussillanimous. Later, he reads a definition: “Wanting of firmness of mind, of small courage, having a little mind, mean spirited, cowardly, timid of mind.” So, in his mind, she is his opposite in a sense that really bothers him.

Then, on line 18: “yacketayakking screaming vomiting whispering facts and memories and anecdotes and eyeball kicks and shocks of hospitals and jails and wars,” Ginsberg has been describing a group of conversationalists that talk about big and important ideas, and now he expresses that they just cannot stop talking and they even speak of their pain and suffering. For Jimmy Porter, talking is a big deal. He feels frustrated because neither his wife Alison nor his friend Cliff seem to satisfy his desire to talk about the issues that concern him in depth. Furthermore, regarding pain and suffering, Jimmy feels that his wife knows nothing about the ways of the world because she has not suffered as he did when he witnessed his father’s death at a very young age. He continues by saying that maybe if she had a child that died, she would be able to understand life the way he does.

[Representation of LBIA]

Moreover, on line 28: “who lounged hungry and lonesome through Houston seeking jazz or sex or soup, and followed the brilliant Spaniard to converse about America and Eternity, a hopeless task, and so took ship to Africa,” Ginsberg describes those who search for jazz music and sex. In connection to Look Back in Anger, music and sex are also central to Jimmy’s character. At the beginning of the play, Jimmy wants to listen to a concert on the radio, but finds it impossible to enjoy it because of the noise that Alison makes while ironing, so he turns it off, angrily. He also plays the trumpet when he is alone. And, when it comes to sex, Alison tells Cliff that she was a virgin when she married Jimmy, and that this made him taunt and ridicule her.

To conclude, these are a few of many connections between these two works. As explained above, there are a few topics that they have in common, even though they are tackled in different ways: in Howl there is a more poetic approach that leaves space for interpretation; whereas in Look Back in Anger, the author displays issues through his characters that portray the minds of post-war society.