The specter and shade of a once powerful mad American locomotive?"... Ginsberg and his close knit circle of friends commonly referred to as the beat poets felt that the postwar prosperity of America was laced with hypocrisy, conformity and materialism. Materialism is the general evil that haunts Ginsberg and he preaches against it in Sunflower Sutra. ... Materialism is the grime of the sunflower and the sunflower is civilization itself. ... Perhaps this was why he rebelled against the world and the way we did things in America. ...

• Word Count: 1238
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: Undergraduate