Kerouac and American Literature

Paper Summary:

This paper explores Jack Kerouac's famous book, "On the Road", about rootless kids looking for kicks. The writer discusses the characters in light of America's loss of identity from the time of the Puritans until the modern era, and how Kerouac used Black culture to fill the identity void.

From the Paper:

"Kerouac s" On the Road" has a complicated relationship to America and American literature. On the one hand, it breaks from the evolving literary tradition within America through its elevation of Afro-American culture, and its depiction of largely irresponsible individuals driven by their need for excess and stimulation. On the other hand, "On the Road" seems to embrace, even subsume, the themes and impulses of earlier literary traditions traditions that paralleled and somehow responded to the changing cultural and political climates in which they found themselves."

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