Question

Howl

by Allen Ginsberg (excerpt)

Solitude! Filth! Ugliness! Ashcans and unobtainable dollars!
Children screaming under the stairways! Boys sobbing in armies! Old men
weeping in the parks!
Moloch! Moloch! Nightmare of Moloch! Moloch the loveless! Mental Moloch!
Moloch the heavy judger of men!
Moloch the incomprehensible prison! Moloch the crossbone soulless jailhouse
and Congress of sorrows! Moloch whose buildings are judgment!
Moloch the vast stone of war! Moloch the stunned governments!
Moloch whose mind is pure machinery! Moloch whose blood is running
money! Moloch whose fingers are ten armies! Moloch whose breast is a
cannibal dynamo! Moloch whose ear is a smoking tomb!

What does Moloch represent in this excerpt from Allen Ginsberg’s poem "Howl"?

A. how institutions are sacrificing the humanity of America
B. how the government is corrupting Americans
C. how the war is causing Americans to lose their lives
D. how Americans are obsessing over becoming rich

Answer 1

A. how institutions are sacrificing the humanity of America

Answer 2

In general Moloch represents in this excerpt from Allen Ginsberg’s poem "Howl" "how institutions are sacrificing the humanity of America" which was a common theme.