The third and final part in Howl finally answers one question, exactly who is included in "the best minds of our generation", this being Carl Solomon. While part 1 and 2 have extremely different tones and two framing what the antagonist of the poem is , Moloch, part three introduces Solomon as a kind of hero, although tragic, of the poem. This part of the poem takes place in Colombia Presbyterial Psychological institute, where the two men met, but in the poem he renames it Rockland. Part three acts as sort of a makeshift diary into what exactly made these people, more specifically Solomon, mad in the first place, describing the treatments that broke them,"where fifty more shocks will never return your soul to its body again from its pilgrimage to a cross in the void.." and "where you bang on the catatonic piano the soul is innocent and immortal it should never die ungodly in an armed madhouse".
We know in the 1950s that living conditions as well as how patients in mental institutions were treated was very poor, though people were already pushing to improve it by switching from asylum based care to community based care. This along with the negative connotations of being labeled mentally insane all contribute to how Ginsburg takes takes these ideals of the mentally ill and builds them into a community of struggling expressive misunderstood individuals, while the doctors and overall society are viewed as the problem. The correlation of madness to genius is used throughout the poem ,Ginsberg views the system as inhumane to lock up "genius",and uses language to help the reader connect with experiences of Solomon." Even the motif of ,"I am with you" encourages the reader to view Solomon through the lens of Ginsberg thus joining this community to witness the breaking of his "innocent and immortal dying in an ungodly madhouse".
1. "Mental health was highly stigmatized in the 1950s, and still is today, what is your opinion that the inhabitants of these mental wards were just misunderstood surrpressed "geniuses" like Ginsberg described?"
2."Who is Solomon through the eyes of Ginsberg?"
3." How does the way the poem is written help to strengthen the notion that part 3 is this rallying cry of solidarity from Ginsberg with Solomon and his experiences and struggles with the system and his mental health"?
Mental health patients may or may not have been geniuses. However, the horrific way the institutions treated them, in order to produce people more conforming to the 1950s standards, was inhumane. Mental health patients were and still are misunderstood; people do not realize that they are wired differently so their reactions and responses are far different than the norm. Does that make them wrong? Certainly not.
ReplyDeleteMaybe there was some untapped potential as a result of people's ignorance and immoral actions. I would not doubt it.
I feel the main point of showing the true emotional trauma of one of these institutes was to direct attention to the unacceptable societal and cultural constraints imposed by conservative thinking America. During this time, you either fit into a culturally acceptable mold, or you were thrown into an insane asylum until you did fit. This ludicrous "medical" practice has since been deemed unlawful, which is what Ginsberg is addressing years before anyone else would.
ReplyDeleteThere are of course places who sincerely want to help those who cannot help themselves, but of course more ften than not there are the cases that show neglect and extreme cases of physical and psychological abuse. He was trying to point these out to the public. It made me think of the movie Suckerpunch whenever I was reading about the mental institution aspects of the story.
ReplyDeleteI am an advocate that disprders are parts of a person, not that the person is defined by their problems. People with extreme cases of autism were admitted into the mental institutions because people could not understand the case, but now with more studies and understanding autism is a very copable disease. The mental institutions and medications are supposed to be resources for that person not sources. They were never supposed to be defined by their issues and I think that this is part of what he is pointing out when talking about Solomon, his mom, friends, and himself.
The types of places that people with mental disabilities vary greatly from what they are today. People were often tied to beds and medicated into a stupor for their entire stay, which for most was their entire lives. While the majority of the people in these institutions were most likely sane like Ginsberg and Solomon, a few of them were probably in need of mental help but the techniques of the time were inadequate to actually provide them any aid. I think that to Ginsberg, Solomon was probably someone he looked to when he needed someone he could relate to and probably made his stay at the mental institution easier to deal with.
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