A Supermarket in California Themes
Literature and Writing
The speaker spends pretty much all of "A Supermarket in California" talking to Walt Whitman, the long-dead super important American poet. Why? Well, Whitman was one of Ginsberg's most influential i...
Sexuality and Sexual Identity
One of the biggest connections that Ginsberg feels with Whitman (and Garcia Lorca) in "A Supermarket in California" is that the poets were gay men, in times when being gay was not exactly a-okay wi...
Visions of America
"A Supermarket in California" doesn't use the word "America" until the end of the poem, but that doesn't mean this one's not all about our fair nation. Ginsberg imagines an America that fits a very...