America

Ginsberg personifies America and directly addresses it, making it a character in the poem. The country stands for many things in Ginsberg’s mind. More than anything, though, Ginsberg uses America as a stand-in for all that could be good but has been corrupted in the world. Ginsberg is not giving up on America—if he was, he wouldn’t write a poem about how he feels like he must step up to save it; instead, he is taking America to task and using it as an example of the ills of capitalism, reactionist policies, hatred, selfishness, hypocrisy, and militarism. In the poem, America exists as an example of power used for ill instead of good, and Ginsberg believes it’s his responsibility to chastise his wayward nation and steer it back to good.

Time Magazine, and to a lesser extent Reader’s Digest, is a stand in for American values and 1950s conformity. The magazine, which was extremely popular during the 1950s, set trends and standards in public and private life. Ginsberg specifically laments the magazine’s call for responsibility, but responsibility really just means upholding the era’s status quo values. This meant working hard, behaving properly, marrying, having children, and consuming. Essentially, this was marketed as the American Dream.