What is Charles Bukowski's poem The Great Slob mean?

Question

I need help, its for a AP class.
Here's the link
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-great-slob/

Answer 1

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker

You know, on the one hand, it's pretty straightforward ... but if you want to go deeper with it, you'd probably go someplace like this:

think of Freud in "Civilization and Its Discontents" -- he makes the point that repression is the price we pay for civilization, right? We can enjoy the benefits of civilization, but that means that we each have to repress urges -- we can't attack people when we're angry, we can't sit and masturbate in public, we can't walk into grocery stores and tear into bags of chee-tos and eat till we're sick ...

So in this poem, Bukowski might be suggesting that on the one hand, these women complain about his slobbishness -- but they always come back. There's something in all of us that's attracted to the pure ID -- to the person or thing that refuses the demands of society, of manners, of correctness -- and instead just does whatever he feels like ...

Arguably that's what we ask poets and rock stars and celebrities and madmen to do for us -- to live big out-of-control lives to make up for the narrow little lives that we're all forced to live. Jim Morrison didn't work in a cubicle; he had his dick sucked in an elevator.

Quote that last line to your AP teacher. He's made his own fatal compromises with civilization.

Asker's Rating:

Asker's Comment:

thx