The Role of Drugs In HOWL

Ginsberg was taking drugs to help him gather more knowledge about the world and himself, his deepest self. Most of his work, Howl included, Ginsberg admits that he wrote them under the influence of drugs (Ginsberg). To him these hallucinogens were very helpful as they helped relive aspects of his life during his youth that he could not understand then and were a mystery. The drugs altered the body functioning and this either increased or decreased perceptions whereby the user would feel that which was previously imperceptible and see that which he could not see before. His poem included experiences that he felt after taking drugs and the visions, which are mostly hallucinations, which came to him in the state of Euphoria after taking drugs (Ridwansyah, 260).

Psychoactive substances and hallucinogens helped the writer escape from reality (Ridwansyah, 261). His mother was in a mental institution and this was overwhelming especially since the father and brothers withdrew their support and was all alone taking care of the mother. The hallucinogens could help him block unwanted images and numb his system. Ginsberg thought that the same way the drugs bring alterations to the body is the same way that they helped in changing his writing because the poem is based on describing the experiences of the body. In Howl, crazy people are referred to s the best thinkers. The effects of drugs make people behave like, mad men and yet it is these mad men who were prophets in the past.

They seemed to be possessed by forces that are beyond human understanding and this is the same for people who are using drugs (Long). It is believed that prophets are possessed by supernatural powers and like a drug user the prophet lose consciousness and gets revelations from the supernatural being, God. Visions and hallucinations are seen to be a sign that one is experiencing divine connection. Ginsberg believes that these people represent salvation for the American people because their brains are no longer barred because after their being exposed to psychoactive substances; they have visions which were not clear to them before (Long). That is why we find hi mentioning the psychoactive substances frequently in his poem. Giving Friday a Voice The fourth and final chapter of the book Foe by Coetzee presents a shift to the first person and the present tense.

It is almost difficult to tell whether the chapter is expressly about a fantasy or a realty or a mixture of both. As the Chapter begins the narrator gets into Foe’s room to find Friday sleeping in the alcove while Foe and Susan are on the bed. The narrator then finds out that Friday has a scar on his neck, maybe of a chain or rope, and his breathe is nearly inaudible. Friday is presented as the “child of his silence, a child unborn, a child waiting o be born and cannot be born. ” He is compared to a child who needs someone to speak on his behalf. Susan therefore, steps up to and even pleads with Foe and involves him in a hermeneutical exercise where she explains the claims of voice and perception.

Susan tells Friday that it is their responsibility to open Friday’s mouth and hear what its holds. She says that, “It is for us to open Friday’s mouth and hear what it holds; silence, perhaps, a roar, like the roar of a seashell held to the ear” (Coetzee, 142). This is a clear indication that Susan’s takes Friday as an equal human being with his own desires and wishes for his life. She further expresses concerns on how possible it would be for Friday to get his freedom back (Mullins). She wonders how this would be possible, yet Friday has been a slave all his life. In addition, Susan questions whether Friday will be able to have freedom even in his native land in Africa.

In all these, Susan is trying to find ways that Friday will be able to stand up for himself and speak his own story as well as decide what his life should be like. As the novel comes to an end, the narrator puts something into Friday’s mouth and it flows out of it like water. He says, “it runs northward and southward to the ends of the earth. Soft and cold, dark and unending (Coetzee, 157). ” To this extent, the narrator attempts to give Friday a voice that reaches everything and everyone. This can be interpreted to represent the voice of the slaves and those in bondage who cannot speak for themselves, and this is the substance that flows across the world and binds it together.