Bowery Blues Analysis

Bowery Blues Analysis

Today’s society doesn’t look at how easy and chill was the past and the people don’t have an interest on how the life is anymore. Kerouac’s message throughout the poem was to show how lost he was and how the people around him influenced his bad feelings about life. During the poem we can really see that he doesn’t know how to act on what is happening in his life.

Throughout the poem Kerouac shows a lot that he is lost in his life, as he states in all the lines of the stanza 2, “ I am hurt/I am scared/ I want to live/ I want to die/ I don’t know/ Where to turn/ In the void/ And when/To cut out.” These lines indicate the frustration and doubts in his life, he doesn’t really know what he wants and how to behave in his life, he is never sure if he should listen to himself because he doesn’t know if he is right or wrong. Kerouac also shows how much his religion has to do in his life as he describes, “ For me no church told me” (Stanza 3 line 18) and “ I can’t take anymore/If I can’t hold/ My little behind/To me in my room/ Then it’s good bye.” (Stanza 4 lines 43 to 47) These quotes shows his beliefs in religions, and in these lines he says that if he can’t stop from drinking then his religions, Buddhism or Christianity, will not be respect as he says “ good bye”.

Moreover Kerouac writes about the sexual desires of a young women as he says “Tight the lovely asses /Of the little girls /In love with sex/Showing themselves/In white undergarments/At elevated windows/Hoping for the Worst.” (Stanza 4 lines 36 to 42) These lines show how they are wasting their times and throwing their lives by doing that because the only thing that they get is the disregard of the other people. During his poem he also talks about drugs “ Just stone” (line 21) it shows his feeling from being high and how to escape from life with the drugs because he can think better with it because he doesn’t need advice to guide his writing when he is under the effects of drugs. Similarly he tells us about how he likes jazz, “ We hear/ the saxophone/ O dead ruby.” (Stanza 3 lines 24 to 26) these lines relate to a French song and to his passion for jazz that he had during the rest of his life and how he enjoys listening to it because it can help him to concentrate and that’s also why the poem is called after a jazz song. In his last lines we can still see that he is lost in his mind and that whatever happens it will always be like that, as he states “ Okay / Quit/ Mad/ Stop.”(Stanza 7 lines 70 to 73) This shows how disappointed he is and how he doesn’t want to think about this world because there is too much problems to think about.

As a final point Kerouac’s poem yet shows how his life goes and how he is lost. He needs jazz, drugs and his religion to stay in this world because without these things he thinks that he is lost. However, if he drinks he is not going to respect his religion and if he can’t stop then he has no respect for it. Kerouac shows a lot his feeling maybe to make the people understand that they have one life and they should enjoy it as much a they can because they will regret if they don’t do what their mind says when he uses the imagery of shadows (stanza 4 line 33). Even if life is hard we have things that can help us to show other that we are disappointed from our life as he does with writing and that material things doesn’t make us happier because they can fail at any time. Today’s society don’t think about how chill was the past in our days they only work and have no interest for other important things.