Allen Ginsberg and William Burroughs Summary

Charters begins the section on Allen Ginsberg with a short biography and summation of Ginsberg's work. Charters notes that Ginsberg's poetry style takes after Kerouac's prose style.

The first section of "Howl" recounts numerous stories about Ginsberg and the other Beats in rapid-fire fashion. Ginsberg describes himself and his friends abusing their bodies and minds with every manner of drug imaginable and engaging in an amazing variety of sex acts with almost any willing partner. However, Ginsberg also portrays his numerous subjects as looking for some kind of spiritual redemption through these acts. The second section rails against an evil force called "Moloch" that is everywhere in the modern world. In the third section, Ginsberg writes to Carl Solomon in an insane asylum to tell him that he is about to be set free. Finally...