Here are a few excerpts from an exam I wrote in college before Chat GPT

Louise Netz

Exam 1 Covid-19 Version

Honors: Beat Literature

3. “A Supermarket in California” is a loving, whimsical tribute to one of Allen Ginsberg’s most important influences on not only his writing and poetry, but also on his acceptance of his identity and personal philosophy. The poem takes us on a dream-like trip to a grocery store filled with American ideals and commercial imagery in place of real commodities where we walk alongside iconic American poet Walt Whitman. 

The ways in which Ginsberg idolized and took inspiration from Whitman is very apparent in this poem. Not only was Ginsberg’s free verse style influenced by Whitman, but Ginsberg is also recognizing here that he owes a debt of gratitude to Whitman. In one section, Ginsberg follows Whitman asking, “are you my angel?” He seems to be making Whitman out to be a savior, role model or moral leader to whom he owes his right to speak freely about his unconventional feelings and gay identity. 

Whiman’s work, which was laced with homoerotic ideas, was a major contribution to the idea for some poets that perhaps someday the ability to be openly gay would become a reality in America. In “A Supermarket in California,“ Ginsberg recognized Whitman’s courage and openness describing him proudly as, “childless, lonely old grubber, poking among the meats in the refrigerator and eyeing the grocery boys.”

Ginsberg found himself being one of the writers who would carry the torch passed on to them by Whitman to make progress for gay writers and others. Whitman, by taking the dangerous leap to even vaguely write about homosexualily,  made it possible for later generations to have the courage to take big steps towards acceptance for their community. 

This is manifested in the poem when Ginsberg addresses Whitman by calling him, “dear father, lonely old-courage teacher.” Whitman is portrayed in this way as a loving, but distant grandfatherly figure donning his iconic beard and offering a kind of unspoken guidance through a new commercialized and tightly conformed America. Whitman and his work are portrayed as a guiding symbol helping to direct us in the way the culture could be heading in. He is not there to lead, but the writing he left behind and the life he lived could be used as inspiration to be courageous. 

4. “America” by Allen Ginsberg is a rant that describes the author’s frustrations and disappointment with his own country, and his exhaustion over attempts to rebel against the status quo of his times. He details his frustrations with an America that he has personified from every angle. It has changed in his view to a place where paranoia has taken over, businesses are streamlined for profit instead of real value and take advantage of laborers, blind patriotism is rampant, injustice is commonplace, the media has too much power over the national conversation and conformity is celebrated and encouraged. 

In terms of American business, Ginsberg singles out the Ford auto company, known for their invention of the assembly line which allowed the company to push out a large number of cars in a short amount of time fairly cheaply. Yet, despite this illusion of progress, every American household had a better opportunity to own a car now that mass production made them cheaper, Ginsberg writes,”I will continue like Henry Ford my strophes are as individual as his automobiles more so they’re all different sexes. America I will sell you strophes $2500 apiece $500 down on your old strophe.” He argues that businesses’ eyes on their profit margins, has corrupted their ability to value anything they produce or anyone that helps them produce it.

He compares the process to writing his poetry. He could write with the motivation being to make a profit in the end, but to do that he would be ignoring the real emotional and artistic reasons to write at all. In America, Ginsberg seems to argue, nothing has intrinsic or sacred value, unless it can turn a profit. 

There are several examples of criminal injustices in the poem, in one section Ginsberg lists off the cases of Tom Mooney, Sacco and Vanzetti and the Scottsboro Boys. Tom Mooney was a labor activist who was wrongly convicted of carrying out the San Francisco Preparedness Day Bombing in 1916. Ginsberg calls for his freedom, although Mooney had been freed in 1939 and died in 1942, long before this poem was written. 

Sacco and Vanzetti were two italian anarchists who were convicted of the muder of two people in 1920, but many say the conviction was motivated based on enthincity and discrimination against people who were part of fringe political movements. The Scottsboro Boys were nine African-American young men who were put on trial in 1931 after being falsely accused of raping two white women in Alabama.

Ginsberg uses these examples to throw it in the face of the American public that their country is not always the fair and free society they view themselves as. He is forcing people to take a critical look at how America has treated the individual time and time again as a pawn to make examples of for the “greater good.” Discrimination and oppression cannot stand any longer. 

I consider “America” to be a very pro-America work. Ginsberg never expresses that he wants to leave it all behind, actually he is nostalgic for a lot of things America used to be. He is dissatisfied by the society that has been presented to him wants things to change for the better. He sees how America is presenting itself in the news and advertising coming from his television and asks,”America is this correct?” Is the ignorance, indifference, conformity and discrimination he is witnessing the truth? 

It is even more frustrating to Ginsberg that his America is in ruins because he knows how much potential the country has to do good for its people and the world. “America when will you sell your eggs to India?” he asks referencing the Bengali famine during World War II that killed millions of people and received very little from other countries in relief aid. He remembers when the culture of America inspired him to be a compassionate person writing, “you made me want to be a saint,” but now somehow that sense of selflessness and charity has been lost. 

I think pushing for progress in terms of freedom of expression and not accepting the powers that be is an American ideal. That’s why the right to peaceful assembly and petition is part of the first amendment. I think every once in a while, like during the 1950s in mainstream America and to some extent now, Americans forget how precious the exchange of ideas is in favor of censoring radical thinkers that just happen to make them uncomfortable. 

5. As much as I’ve always loved Ginsberg, “Constantly Risking Absurdity” by Lawrence Ferlinghetti has become one of my favorite works we’ve studied this semester. It perfectly describes the reason so many of us are drawn to and appreciate controversial, political, obscene or inventive art and the artists who create it. They are willing to take risks politically and socially in the pursuit of exposing a truth or exhibiting new ideas. 

Ferlinghetti presents the poet as being like an acrobat or tightrope walker who is walking a thin line in the pursuit of higher meaning and truth. The poet while doing this is full view of a judgemental audience who is ready to let him fall from grace and shower him with criticism the second he makes a misstep. He is “above the heads of his audience,” delivering them ideas only he is able to reach. The fact that there isn’t a safety net makes it all the more exciting. 

As it is stated in the title, the poet is “constantly risking” looking like a fool to his audience and those who are unfamiliar with his work by going after the difficult or complex ideas they have the desire to explore. This is one of the most important functions of the artist in society is to push the envelope, and some of the best creative endeavors an artist or writer can pursue are the dangerous ones. Ferlinghetti is arguing that poets and artists are unique in society because they are happy to take the leap and put themselves in danger if it means they have the chance to make it to a higher realm of ideas and thought “where Beauty stands and waits.”

In terms of form, the poem helps us as the reader to feel as though we are up there on the tightrope with the poet. The lines swing back and forth on the page, there are sudden pauses to regain our balance, “and all without mistaking… anything… for what it may not be,” and moments of quick footwork, “before the taking of each stance or step. This physically brings the anxiety and tension a poet experiences when they are taking a risk in their writing to the work in a very palpable way. 

It is also notable that there are no stanzas or punctuation in the poem. It is a constant stream of focused thought. It seems to be written in the kind of focused, careful voice a poet would need to use to keep themselves from tripping and making a mistake, while still keeping intact the integrity of their idea or message.