Ginsberg and Kerouac

Jack Kerouac talks about the vanishing American Hobo. He writes about the hobo before massive social services tries to take care of everyone and does not take into account personal choices. Kerouac maintains that Benjamin Franklin could be considered a bum because he walked the streets of Philadelphia with no money. John Muir could be considered a bum even though he is the father of conservation and played a major part in establishing national parks. Kerouac romanticizes the freedom of the open road. He talks about how noble the life a hobo lives. He even breaks down the categories of hoboes: forty niners, black hoboes, etc… The hobo is the only truly free man. Kerouac states that people cannot have privacy even in the primitive wilderness because there are always helicopters snooping around the woods. The proud American Hobo is being turned into a beggar who sleeps in the doorway and can’t go into the wilderness because “the woods are full of wardens.” (Kerouac) Hoboes are persecuted by cops who have nothing to do but harass bums.

I loved the poem “A Supermarket in California”. Ginsberg following Walt Whitman through a supermarket where fruit and produce gleam. He sees families, husbands, and children shopping. He also sees Lorca, a Spanish poet. The language is so smart and wry. “Where are we going, Walt Whitman? The doors close in an hour. Which way does your beard point tonight” (Ginsberg 21-22). I guess I should mention the poem “Howl” but I felt that it was difficult to read because I didn’t understand the slang of the day. For example,” who got busted in their pubic beards returning through Laredo with a belt of marijuana for New York?” (Ginsberg 21-22). I guess that he was strip search and got caught with weed in his pants.

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Hobos Yesterday and Today

What we know as  homeless people in todays society was called hobos in the 50's though the 80's or maybe somewhere in the early 90's. Back then a homeless person or hobo didn't have the trouble that they have today.  They have no where to lay their heads or to take a good hot bath.  As we seem them in our city they are laying on sidewalks, bus stop benches, park benches, or just in a grassy area.  They are always standing in what might be a busy intersection with signs asking can you spear $1.00 so I can get something to eat.  When they ask for this you can see that some of them really only want the money to buy booze, cigarettes, or illegal drugs.  We look at them and we judge them as being dirty and contaminated.  I must apologize because I might have judge someone without thinking.  On the other hand as I read this article this is not how the hobos was treated back in the day.  They were sleeping in some fine places, they was not disturbed by the local authorities like they do today.  People would hand out money and food and some would even invite them into there homes and think nothing about it.  They where friends to some of the children and would help with handy work around the homes.  So why is things different then yesterday or today as you look at this situation.  They are both the same kind of issues in todays society as it was in the early years? 

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Romancing the Hobo

I think it's really interesting how Kerouac romanticizes the hobo life. Not so much hobos specifically, but the idea of how they live simply and appreciatively, but also how the direction American society and culture are moving is trying to kill that ideology. Kerouac on the other hand obviously has a great appreciation for this philosophy and resents people turning against it. I feel like a lot of his defining people like Whitman and Franklin is his argument not necessarily for this way of living, but against the arguments against it, like a counter-offensive. That the great people who built this country and shaped it's culture and are ingrained into every Americans lives either directly or indirectly (depending on the individual) lived by this philosophy and by rejecting it would be to loose what once made us great.
I loved how he even tried to explain why the shift against the hobo occurred: we became afraid and self important. We began looking down on them, and without a proper understanding of the situation, we got scared. He describes the shift as "In Brueghel's time children danced around  the hobo, he wore huge and raggy clothes and always looked straight ahead indifferent to the children, and the families didn't mind the children playing with the hobo, it was a natural thing. - But today mothers hold tight their children when the hobo passes through town, because of what newspapers made the hobo to be- the rapist, the strangler, child-eater.- Stay away from strangers, they'll give you poison candy" (2977).
My problem is that times have changed even since he wrote this and "hobo" doesn't seem like the most appropriate metaphor anymore, although the point still gets through tremendously thanks to Kerouac's writing. Today I feel like people who choose this kind of lifestyle are more stereotyped as the hippies and such, as where the hobo is more of a homeless bum, stereotyped as a drug addict panning for money for more drugs. But that's not really Kerouac's fault, it was just a point I thought of and found interesting enough to see what kind of reaction it would get here.

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They Used to be Adventurers, Now They're Just Pathetic

First and foremost I think Kerouac makes a distinction between bums and hobos and yet they are in essence the same people. They've just changed. He characterizes hobos as wanderers, seeking solace, celebrated in towns, and people that enjoyed experience. He named famous hobos like Benjamin Franklin, Jesus of Nazareth and Buddha. But he also names the reason for the change from hobo to bum, Kerouac blames propaganda and police for turning an American icon into something to be ashamed of. "In America camping is considered a healthy sport for Boy Scouts but a crime for mature men who have made it their vocation," (Kerouac 2977). There is a hostility against police officers that I had a little trouble understanding until he described his own experiences hoboing, running into police that didn't understand his plight and didn't offer any type of assistance beyond their judgments. The last line of the essay really sums up his feelings about what had changed things in the world of the traveler, "the woods are full of wardens" (Kerouac 2982), men were no longer allowed to roam free. There were always eyes watching, judging, and stopping them from truly exploring the world and being totally alone. Kerouac believes this police presence and over bearing nature chased nomadic hobos to cities and created the modern day bum. Even the word is less pleasant than hobo. He describes bums in a more pathetic sense, even though the hobo also relied on the help of strangers often to eat and get by the bums out stretched hand is seen as something to ignore and create tension and unease. 

Is Kerouac just romanticizing a time in his life by creating a distinction between being a hobo and a bum? Did police really perpetuate this negative stereotype of a nomadic way of life or was  the transition of hobo to bum more of a cultural change? 

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Long Live the Hobo

In Kerouac's essay "The Vanishing American Hobo," the reader is absorbed into the world of the homeless during the 50's to 1960. Kerouac goes on to paint the picture of a hobo as being a grand spectacle, a national treasure of sorts. His descriptions brought out this sense of profoundness in the homeless; it were as if the hobos were enlightened, or at the very least, more intelligent, and more American. Being a hobo is seen as the ultimate freedom (on page 2977, Kerouac describes it as "the special footwalking freedom").

Kerouac names many—as he considers them—famous American hobos, who he believe truly represent the idea of America, and the idea of freedom. Such examples include:

"Benjamin Franklin was like a hobo in Pennsylvania" (2977).
"Did [Walt] Whitman terrify the children of Louisiana when he walked the open road?" (2977).
"...a definite special idea of footwalking freedom going back to the days of Jim Bridger and Johnny Appleseed" (2977).

Kerouac uses these men to identify the hobos not as criminals, but as educated, free individuals. He argues in the essay that the culture of the time was boring, and uninspiring. He views the hobos as being the truest of individuals, living in a whole other world, one where they are constantly inspired by the struggle to survive, as well as the freedoms they endure without things like bills, work, etcetera  to hold them back. Kerouac views the society of the time as being startlingly un-American. He sees the policing of the homeless, as well as the negative stigma placed by society, as a horrible crime to our country, as well as crippling our founding values. By discriminating against the homeless, we are discriminating against the true individuals, the ones who are truly free.

The final line of the essay makes strong his point: "The woods are full of wardens" (2982). Through this one line, the reader can seemingly pick up on the tone of the essay. While it maintains a light-heartedness in its telling of a hobo and their lifestyle, it is a rather dark essay. It warns us of the cost, of the way society looks down upon these people, and how it can harm you rather than bring you the enlightenment you seek. Kerouac has a very amazing presentation of moods, and this essay is a great example of it. 

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