Question

Where are we going, Walt Whitman? The doors close in an hour. Which way does your beard point tonight?

 (I touch your book and dream of our odyssey in the supermarket and feel absurd.)

 Will we walk all night through solitary streets? The trees add shade to shade, lights out in the houses, we’ll both be lonely.

—“A Supermarket in California,”
Allen Ginsberg

What feeling or idea does Ginsberg express with this allusion to Walt Whitman?

Ginsberg suggests that both he and Whitman are superior to others.

Ginsberg suggests that both he and Whitman are out of step with the norms of mainstream society.

Ginsberg suggests that both he and Whitman are running out of time and must leave the market.

Answer 1

Ginsberg suggests that both he and Whitman are out of step with the norms of mainstream society.

Explanation: By invoking Whitman and imagining a private nocturnal walk through a supermarket and lonely streets, Ginsberg aligns himself with Whitman’s outsider, free-spirited voice. The scene criticizes consumer culture and conventional domestic life; the “lonely” streets and the surreal duet with Whitman emphasize alienation from mainstream values rather than superiority or merely running out of time.