"American" Along With "In the Baggage Room at Greyhound"

Up front I want to make it clear that I did not enjoy reading these poems. But regardless I will do my best to explain what I thought they were about and also give my “insight” into them. I will start with “America” by Allen Ginsberg.
In this poem I think that Ginsberg is trying to express his frustration with politics, society and America in general. The time period is around the forties and fifties. It seems to me that he a communist because he constantly referred to communism like on lines 10 and 11 on page 40 when he states “America I used to be a communist when I was a kid…I’m not sorry”. This shows to me that possibly Ginsberg feels that his views are being suppressed and that people now are not encouraged to share their opinions. After doing a little research I remembered that at this point in American history the American people were afraid to share their views of anything especially if they were partial to communism. Senator Joseph McCarthy was at that time using his power to scare the American people about communism. He did this to increase his political power. He led viscous charges against anyone associated with communism. Whether or not they deserved it is up to debate. Ginsberg in this poem is attempting maybe to encourage the American people to be different and not so close minded. By reading Time magazine Americans learn how they are to live and behave. Ginsberg shows that he too has been caught up in this craze. On line 10 on page 41 we see that after Ginsberg reads Time magazine he realizes that he is like everyone else in American “It occurs to me that I am America.” Towards the end of the poem we find out that Ginsberg is probably homosexual. This was probably not very well accepted at that time. I feel like America has come a ways from this but there are still lingering problems in society. My opinion is that sometime college students become brainwashed into going into the major that they are best at; but maybe not what they enjoy. Then the rest of their lives they end up working and doing things that they hate. But society states that we need to do what will make us the most money. We need to learn to do what is in our heart and make decisions based of what we want to do, not what society says is the right thing. Again this is what I think the poem is saying but I’m most likely wrong. I didn’t like it but it did make me think about how maybe I was pressured to be one way when maybe I should have taken another path. It is kind of like Frost’s poem about the two paths in the woods. Society may want us to take one path while really we should go opposite of it.

Now I will analyze “In the Baggage Room at Greyhound” by Allen Ginsberg. This poem takes place in the baggage room for Greyhound in San Francisco. Ginsberg is trying to illustrate all the sights and sounds of the busy room. To me it kind of felt like waiting in line after you get off an airplane and are waiting for your luggage. Everyone is either excited or exhausted. One thing that really stuck out in this poem to me is how Ginsberg brought to life the sorter at the bottom of page 44 “Nor mustached negro Operating Clerk named Spade, dealing out with his marvelous long hand the fate of thousands of express packages.” I can really picture this man, he has worked here for his whole life and his job is so boring that he doesn’t have to think anymore. Ginsberg is looking at all this to make sure that he has a mental picture of the hell he is leaving behind. This will help him to appreciate whatever he does in his future.

I found a few words that I looked up, the first was psychoanalysis on line 18 on page 40 in “America” . It is the method of psychological therapy originated by Sigmund Freud in which free association, dream interpretation, and analysis of resistance and transference are used to explore repressed or unconscious impulses, anxieties, and internal conflicts, in order to free psychic energy for mature love and work.
The next word that I didn’t know was cynical on line 17 on page 44 in “In the Baggage Room at Greyhound”. This word means believing or showing the belief that people are motivated chiefly by base or selfish concerns.
Lastly I was unfamiliar was Calistoga on line 17 on page 46 in “In the Baggage Room at Greyhound”, which I found was a town in northern California.