A supermarket in california free essay sample

Poetry is a form of literary art that uses aesthetic and rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning to an audience. In â€Å"A supermarket in California† by Allen Ginsberg, he uses symbolism and literary allusions to convey a man going through a crisis between the modern American consumerism, an individual’s detachment with nature; following the ways of his idol Walt Whitman by living a spiritual natural lifestyle and also tell a story about his search for sexual acceptance among the society for homosexuals. Walt Whitman’s work deals with nature and how modern societies have effects on the natural world. Also the use of Whitman in this poem is a device which Allen Ginsberg used to contract his idols version of reality and also sexuality. Allen Ginsberg’s first literary device in the poem, â€Å"A supermarket in California† is the use of symbolism. Symbolism is the use of symbols to represent ideas or qualities. In (line 4) â€Å"I went into the neon fruit market†. The supermarket is symbolic of mass production in modern America while the neon is symbolic of how artificial the society has become and also opposes Allen’s naturalistic way of living because there is nothing natural about a neon light. However he continues to seek some kind of approval from Walt by asking â€Å"Where are we going â€Å"Walt Whitman†, Overall the supermarket symbolizes how artificial the supermarket has become as a venue for food sales. These symbols relates Allen’s his perspective of the supermarket compared to natural food/ street stores/ farmers market and he describes it as a symbol of the man-made consumerist nature of a supermarket. He then went on to talk about the peaches and the penumbras. â€Å"What peaches and what penumbras! Whole families shopping at night! Aisles full of husbands! Wives in the avocados, babies in the tomatoes! And you Garcia Lorca, what were you doing by the watermelon? (Lines 6-8). The fruit symbolizes his yearn for the American family to be close to nature and got things in little quantities rather than mass produced goods. He also wished the society was still close; his description of the family showed the family all over the place not making unilateral decision and not doing things as a whole rather as individuals. The families is symbolic of how everyone is going about their lives based on the â€Å"society’s idea† of what a mainstream family should be hence leading to people lacking uniqueness, authenticity and a sense of self also becoming indistinguishable from the produce (not unique) . In the final part of his poem Allen goes on to talk about how less optimistic he was about the world he lives in. He then questions Whitman; â€Å"where are we going the doors close in an hour† (18) this symbolizes his realization that everything is going to change no matter what. His glorified idea of the natural world seems to be falling apart around him and he realizes it might not last due to the new consumerist nature of modern America. He admits that he feels absurd for having such high hopes of seeing the beauty of supermarket commodities in lines 20-21. He realizes there is no place that he and Walt can to find Walt’s ideal place and realizes that their journey through the â€Å"solitary streets† past symbols of a â€Å"lost America† such as cars would only lead them to a lonely life (line 22-25). Allen Ginsberg’s second literary device in the poem is the use of literary allusion. Literary allusion is a reference to a work of art, music, history, religion, or another work of literature within a piece of literature. It is pretty obvious that Walt Whitman is the driving force behind the poem; he is mentioned several times and also portrayed as a lonely man and also as a lifestyle along with other poets; however he had several other allusions such as Garcia Lorca in (line 8) who was an influential Spanish poet and an inspiration to Walt, Charn in (line 28) who was from the Greek mythology. Allen uses these individuals as a point of reference for his audience to refer to see how much this gotten â€Å"worse† and changed since their era so his reader could get a feel of then and now. Later on it became quiet known that Allen was gay and parts of the poem symbolized and represented a person who is being unsure of his sexuality and someone who is going through a journey of self-discover, this can be seen to some clues of Allen referencing Walt and Lorca who were both gay right activists and also homosexual individuals. It is quite clear when Allen states â€Å"I saw you Walt Whitman, childless, lonely grubber, poking among the meats in the refrigerator and eyeing the grocery boys†. Allen is making Walt Whitman’s sexuality obvious by calling him a homosexual. Allen isolating Walt, stating that he is childless, lonely and eyeing boys are all clearly accusations at the society since during that time the society was not accepting of homosexual of the idea of homosexuality and the ideology behind the â€Å"American dream† was a man, a woman, and their children in a house not a man or a woman and a man or a woman and their children. He is makes these comparisons in order to made his readers see how similar he is to Walt. And how he feels they do not belong since the idea of the American dream/modern America didn’t accept them for who they are and the only way they can survive is to pretend about who they are. In Allen’s poem he uses these literary devices to show the reader that America’s consumerism has caused a detachment between humans and natures. The use of symbolism allows the reader the chance to see Allen’s point of view and to also show how much individuals have conformed to the society’s new perspective of mainstream and modern America and also show how the society was not accepting of being homosexual and if one tries to defy the societies opinion of â€Å"relationships and marriage† he/she would only end up alone. With Literary allusion it helped the readers connect to him; to see where he is coming from literary and also have a historic background of what he is trying to relay. Allen Ginsberg was able to intertwine these devices into his poem to make the reader feel the theme how things are changing in front of us and also showing how much of a role we play in it as individuals. Also if an individual tries to contradict this opinion such individual would be forgotten.