Movement and Beauty

Allen Ginsberg, a member of the beats, exemplifies one of the main themes of the generation: movement. In his poem “In Back of the Real,” Ginsberg depicts a man walking by a tank factory and coming across a flower. This poem starts in mid-conscious stream with the first line starting halfway through the first thought, uncapitalized and intriguing. Movement was essential for the beats, providing them with constant experiences and reminders about how the human condition operates. The flower that the narrator describes develops an image with the reader of being ugly as well as worn down. But the narrator calls this flower “the flower of the world” at the very end of the poem. Along with this declaration, Ginsberg describes the flower as tough and a “flower nonetheless.”  The flower’s thorns are described as being like the spikes of Jesus’ crown, adding to a sense of sacrifice. This sense of hidden beauty and self-sacrifice lends itself to an image of the flower as a representation of the effect of industry on America. Industry wears down the country and people lose sight of the real beauty of nature as well as of each other.