The famous writers Flannery O’Connor’s and Allen Ginsburg

The famous writers Flannery O’Connor’s and Allen Ginsburg

In this article, I will major on two popular authors, Flannery O’Connor’s and Allen Ginsburg. Both have created canonical texts. One of O’Connor’s most famous works is “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” which was written in the 1950s. As the 1960s neared, the end of the persona of a perfect family, the “right” way to live, and the widespread sense of stability were ending. The Beat Movement was just around the corner, and it was evident in the writings of these stories that authors were becoming more daring in their subject matter. In “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” the main character is introduced as being religious and a stand-up citizen. Still, as the story goes on, her morals become questionable and leading to the question of whether she is a good or even likeable character. The introduction of O’Connor’s character acts as a representation of society’s feelings of the ’50s, and their progression represents the transition in a culture which gets into the ’60s.

Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find” is set in the 1950s. The main character is the grandmother of a family who is about to take a trip (Akbar et al., 572). Early in the story, the women boast about how she is a religious and righteous lady. How she describes herself is contradicting because, throughout the story, she is lying and manipulating her family by any means to get her way. I think the representation of this character is showing the countries growing exasperation with a restrictive and conservative culture.

Throughout the story, the main characters are portrayed as a normal, wholesome family. As you read the story, you pick up on little details that sway away from traditional values and norms of the “all American family.” The children talk back and are rude to their family as well as to strangers. The son and his wife are exasperated with their mother living with them. It is implied that the son said something extremely vulgar to his mother. This portrayal of a normal family is authentic, but not up to the cultural norms of how a “family” should behave. A recurrent theme in the story is America losing its victory culture identity. It is represented when the grandmother and Red Sam are discussing the “the good old days.”  This story was released in 1953, just as the Beat movement was beginning to take the form (Akbar et al., 576)..

The next author I’d like to talk about is Allen Ginsberg, one of the founding fathers of the Beat movement. He published his famous poem “Howl” in 1956 (Singh et al., 63), a few years after “A Good Man is Hard to Find.” As in “A Good Man is Hard to Find ”, Howl also portrays a theme of disappointment in the direction of America’s society. In “A Good Man is Hard to Find,”  O’Connor’s makes sly implications about America’s dissatisfaction with the direction the country is going, “Everything is getting terrible. I remember the day you could go off and leave your screen door unlatched. Not no more.” (Akbar et al., 570).

“Howl” Ginsberg expressly talks about the mistreatment of minorities and marginalized groups. You can see the progression in the subject matter by his themes of sex and drugs in American culture.  The poem is filled with people and places, suicides, unusual languages, as well as madness and drugs (Singh et al., 63). Ginsberg, who is a keen observer, uses the first-person perspective through which autobiographical and biographical episodes have a significant role even though they are altered and transformed. Howl poem serves as a social commentary which is a rambling and an intense narrative featuring references, characters and other real-life sequences. Additionally, he takes in considerations of all the margins of the society which are prominent by sweeping them along in the long lines which Ginsberg employs in conveying of deep frustrations, energy and joy in the Howl poem.

Howl poem serves as a social commentary and a revolutionary manifesto of Beats generation. As the poem is written using an elegiac tone representing the tone of mourning, the poem’s title shows protest as a cry for all exploitation and subjugation. The poet, Allen Ginsberg writes asking people to cry against acts of capitalism, exploitation as well as repressions and subjugation. Hence, the poem serves as a celebration of the counter culture movement. All good minds of the 50s are ruined through madness where this type of madness presents itself in different forms. Allen Ginsberg describes madness to be informed of scholars, best generations and best minds (Singh et al., 63). Such type of madness happens as a counterculture which is a compulsion but not their choice.  Allen Ginsberg writes Howl aiming at describing the suffering and persecution of groups of outcasts that seek transcendent reality.  In conclusion, Flannery O’Connor’s and Allen Ginsburg are both famous writers. Through their work of “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” and Howl poem respectively, they make narrations which reveal the main themes.

Work Cited

Akbar, Nadia Ali, and Rawa Jawad Khadim. “Irony in The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe and “A Good Man is Hard to Find by Mary Flannery O’Connor.” Essential Education College Magazine For Educational and Humanities Sciences 33 (2017): 567-578.

Singh, Satnam, and Zameerpal Kaur. “A Comparative Eco-Queer Analysis of the Selected Poems of Allen Ginsberg, Thom Gunn, and Agha Shahid Ali.” Researchers World 8.2 (2017): 63.