Quest of the Spirit: From Suffering to Acceptance

6.5 Post-War Doubts : A Modern Perspective on the Beat Generation: Ferlinghetti

              Lawrence Ferlinghetti's uses the archetypal themes of loss of purpose and identity in his interpretation of Goya's famous etchings "The Disasters of War" to correlate past experiences of human cruelty in warfare with that of a deterministic America consuming itself through mechanization. Following World War II and the Korean Crisis, alienation and disillusionment became the predominant themes of British and American literature, and during the postwar years, individuals began questioning the true necessity or honor of armed combat which rendered men destitute and cost the lives of thousands for what appeared a worthless cause. As a result, depression and lack of direction became the obstacles against which man would struggle in a chaotic world. For example, in "In Goya's Greatest Scenes . . ." one discovers the central theme of "suffering humanity" in which the pain of bloodshed and despair play the dominant role in the life of modern man. Ferlinghetti depicts humanity as "writhing" and "in a veritable rage of adversity," "groaning" with "babies and bayonets." By contrasting "babies and bayonets," one easily senses the author's bitterness toward a civilization which would allow its youth to sacrifice their lives for an unnecessary object. The action occurs"In an abstract landscape of blasted trees bent statues bats wings and beak slippery gibbets cadavers and carnivorous cocks and all the final hollering monsters of the 'imagination of disaster' [.]

             Thus, the author pictures an abstract representation of reality, produced on canvas and peopled with individuals "so bloody real it is as if they really still existed." Similarly, vivid images of turmoil, death, and the occult describe the combatants to create the single mood of the horror and futility of man-the-sufferer within a disjointed environment. Clearly, Ferlinghetti's chthonic garden with "blasted trees," "bent statues," "gibbets," "cadavers," and "monsters" represents the setting of an inverted archetypal paradise.Since no definite reality can be ascertained, perception alone forms the determinant. At first glance, the order of "In Goya's Greatest Scenes . . ." appears illogical because the poem follows no conventional chronology. Nevertheless, through the literary devices of perception, i.e. contrast and imagery, Ferlinghetti unites the selection in theme and intent. For example, the monstrous people who only appear to be real in Goya's painting do actually exist in America, as Ferlinghetti suggests in the opening of the second stanza. Moreover, by seeing the past in the present, the author arranges the poem as an archetypal metaphor emphasizing the waste and futility of modern human life. While the image conveyed in the first stanza depicts people who seem real, it only reflects Goya's perception of the obvious suffering in war. However, the second section portrays actual individuals "further from home" or, in a sense, further from their own connection with reality, in which they are unknowingly brainwashed by "bland billboards/ illustrating imbecile illusions of happiness." The setting shifts from Europe to America, and now the monsters exist, not as individuals actively participating in their own destruction, but rather as Americans passively incapacitated and losing their unique identities from the general and internal mechanization of the age. Consequently, as time passes, man becomes more alienated from his Edenic primordial past. Similarly, the war image emphasizes the "writhing and groaning" of known suffering; whereas, the last division refers to the "imbecile . . . happiness" of American citizens oblivious to their fate. Moreover, Goya's reality involves the conflict of man versus man, while Ferlinghetti's concept shifts to man versus machine. Thus, the age of automation replaces the Edenic ideal, making communication itself even more futile. In essence, the second image proves more tragic, since its characters fail to realize that the "painted cars" with "strange license plates" symbolize the instruments of their death, which will carry them beyond mortality into the unknown. In Ferlinghetti's terms, "They still are ranged along the roads plagued by legionaires' false windows and demented roosters ." Man, therefore, has not changed in the past centuries; he is still plagued by false dreams and insane cries of false prophets. Ironically, both the windmill and the archetypal mandala, as well as the rooster, serve as archetypal symbols for cyclical time which is either "false" or "demented," again suggesting an inverted Edenic setting described first in Europe and finally in America. To the postwar existentialist, no progress has ever been achieved, and none is to be expected. Consequently, the author points to a cruel reality in which all men are destined to suffer, in an absurd world in which nothing is to be attained.