Abstract This paper explains that JackKerouac's "On The Road" is an expression of the beat generation of 1950s America. The author points out the way the novel functions as a document of the psychological and cultural experience of an individual. The paper states that the book also offers insight into the attitudes and behavior of a society.
From the Paper "To say that Jack Kerouac's novel "On the Road" is autobiographical is a little like saying that Rembrandt did self-portraits once in a while. In a way that relatively few fictional treatments of one's current experience of life have managed, "On the Road" functions ..."
Tags:Jack, Kerouac, ON, THE, ROAD, Beat, Generation
Abstract Memory Babe: A Critical Biography of JackKerouac
This paper is an analysis of On the Road, the most famous literary product of the Beat generation. The author looks at the life of the book's creator, JackKerouac, and his philosophies on life, and restless spirit as he wandered and searched for meaning in all Kerouac encountered.
From the paper:
"Though it is not the only work of his art, On the Road, for better or worse, has become Kerouac's most famous novel. This book has performed as a means to meet the desires for a number of other people who feel to be having a restless and curious soul. The book itself initiated a cultural revolution, hence diverting about millions of people on new ideological channels. At the same time it arched Kerouac to a fame that he was never expecting and for which his calm, sacred soul was not prepared to deal with."
Tags: road, on, beat, generation, paradise, sal, moriarty, dean
Abstract This paper describe the beat generation, a close group of American writers of the 1950s of whom JackKerouac is associated. This group rejected materialism and consumer society and put forth a new set of values. The paper relates that JackKerouac in his 1957 novel "On the Road" speaks about this dissatisfaction with contemporary society by presenting a moral and psychological portrait . The paper also points out that Kerouac uses the stream of consciousness technique to recreate his and his friends' deeply philosophical and spiritual cross-country road trips across America. The paper highlights the two main characters of the novel, Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty, who in reality are JackKerouac and his closest friend Neal Cassady.
From the Paper "The Beats were intellectuals, writers who experimented with Zen Buddhism and drugs; the spiritually enlightening experiences that came as a result of the experimentation are described in the novel by characters such as Carlo Marx - real life Beat icon, Allen Ginsberg - and Dean Moriarty. What is interesting to mention here is that Sal Paradise, the main character and narrator of the novel, does not participate in his friends' experiments with Benzedrine. Moreover, he expresses his reluctance as to the possibility of finding one's soul i.e. what the other members of his entourage were looking for."
Abstract This paper discusses the life and writing of JackKerouac, the 1950s American author whose novel "On the Road" is considered a classic. The paper traces Kerouac's childhood in Massachusetts, including watershed events such as the death of his older brother. Then the paper analyzes the influence of the Beat Generation and other social phenomena on Kerouac's writing. The paper concludes with Kerouac's tragic demise from alcohol.
From the Paper "The Beat Generation. The Fabulous Fifties. Elvis. Rock and Roll. The Communist Menace. And then there was author Jack Kerouac. He defined a restless, dynamic and evolving generation of angst-ridden adventurers, who were desperately searching for the true meaning of life in the embodiment of this complex muse. Kerouac exuded a James Dean-like persona - in the way he wrote about, and ultimately lived, his life. Agnes Machate writes of Kerouac and his fellow writers of the Beat Generation: "They did not seem to pay too much attention to what was socially practical; in this regard they were rebels. If being non-conformist met their need for freedom and let them express themselves the way the wanted, and allowed them to be what they wanted to be, they did not have to obey any rules. They wouldn't fit in a group, but instead, stand out, so they wouldn't conform just to avoid an unpleasant treatment from society." ("The Generation of Extremes" 1)."
Tags: beat, generation, on, the, road, american, novel, alcoholism, rebel
Abstract This paper explains that JackKerouac's "On the Road" captures the essence of the United States in a manner that has never been accomplished before because his disjointed and arbitrary travels mimic the complex and almost incomprehensible experience that is America, filled with the people and places, both famous and obscure. The author points out that Kerouac rolls through the countryside creating memories, connected directly his relationship with his friends; thus the theme, which pulls the novel together, is that the vast expanses of the United States are characterized by the people within them. The paper relates that the novel makes America real because, unlike other novels about this country "On the Road " does not appear to have any ideology aside from existence: "We are here. We are alive."
From the Paper "Another symbol of beauty and pure emotion is music. Music is like America: they both are meaningless if there is not a human being there to experience them. Jazz, however, not only reflects America, but it reflects a rebellious aspect of America. In your time it remained a subculture; looked down upon by the social elite, the conservative, and the racists. Sal and Dean are unconcerned with all of these connotations. Specifically what appeals to Sal is the raw emotion; the idea that a trumpet player can most accurately express his emotion by hitting random, unplanned, and almost arbitrary notes. Dean becomes completely lost in the music. He believes he can feel exactly what the musician is feeling and at exactly the same moment."
Abstract This paper shows that social discomfort and distrust are heavily reflected in JackKerouac's works. Ray Smith from "The Dharma Bums" and Sal Paradise from "On the Road" are confused by society and why it functions as it does, and are therefore isolated from it. Leo Percepied from "The Subterraneans", on the other hand, becomes isolated from society as a result of not understanding himself and merely tries to accept his life for what it is. The paper takes a look at the links between Kerouac's characters, also in comparison to his own life.
From the Paper "Eventually Ray comes to believe that the only way to achieve total happiness is to find "dharma," or truth. He comes to this conclusion with the help of his good friend Japhy Ryder. Ryder is an easygoing young man who is a strong follower of Buddhism. He introduces Ray to Buddhist thinking and gets him interested in pursuing dharma by telling him miraculous tales of the great Han Shan, an ancient Buddhist monk whom he grows to admire greatly. His admiration is for Han Shan's ability to "take off by himself and live purely and true to himself."3 For Han Shan the solution is to live a life of his own in the mountains of China, in retreat from society's conformity."
Abstract This paper that analyzes JackKerouac's life experiences and his philosophy of life as mirrored in the contents of his book "On the Road." The paper does this by using examples from the book that support that thesis.
Abstract Discusses JackKerouac's novel "On the Road" and its historical significance as a Beat Generation novel. The paper looks at the novel's exploration of identity, its rebellion against the conventional era of the 1950s and the quest of the main protagonists for something different and better.
From the Paper "Jack Kerouac along with William Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg was a seminal figure of the Beat Generation which emerged in the ..."
Abstract The paper looks at the quest theme in JackKerouac's influential beat generation novel, "On The Road." The paper explains the road trip as symbolic of the quest for identity and the automobile as the symbol of the new American mobility. The paper also notes the semi-autobiographical tone of the novel.
From the Paper "A central and even dominant theme in Jack Kerouac's novel "On the Road" is the road trip as a symbolic and practical quest for identity, a quest that occupies the lives of Sal Paradise, the narrator and Dean Moriarty, the perpetual road tripper. As an influential member of the Beat generation of American writers, Kerouac used what appears to be a semi-autobiographical approach to his theme."
Abstract Ralph Waldo Emerson and JeanLouis Lebris de Kerouacwere both born near Boston, one hundred and twenty years apart. The paper shows however, that the similarities in their regard to literary history, as well as the connection between the two in regards to their lives and early writing, is sufficient enough to draw many parallels between them. It shows that both men, as writers and as citizens of America, felt compelled by their discontent and discouragement at the state of affairs in their country, to stake out new ground and develop a new relation to their society and the world at large.
From the Paper "How does the Beat Generation and the America of the 1950's compare with the social, political, and religious turmoil of the early America Emerson lived in? Both times in our country's history were marked, to a large degree, by an unusual level of conformity. The youth generation's reaction was to, not only fight against it, but to develop a completely alternate mode of consciousness with its own laws, its own set of values, and its own search for a "new and original relation" to the universe. However, my argument is not to so much compare these two times in American history, but rather to show how the conditions of America in the 1950's led to similar questions and similar quests among the youth generation. These questions and quests, when stripped down to a common denominator are essentially spiritual. ?By a generation,? wrote F.Scott Fitzgerald, ?I mean that reaction against fathers which seems to occur about three times a century. It is distinguished by a set ideas,[and] inherited in moderated form from the madmen and outlaws of the generation before.?1
For Kerouac, and other writers of the Beat Generation, the uncertainty, the provincialism, and social disintegration of Post World War II America, led to a feeling of shiftlessness, indifference, aversion to conformity, and the need to extract all that life had to offer. The green lawns and white picket fences of Middle Class America, the sense of security many people looked for in the aftermath of World War II, held no allure to Jack and his friends. Norman Mailer's essay "The White Negro" describes the Beat Generation as characterized by a quest ?to explore that domain of experience where security is boredom and therefore sickness.?2"
Abstract This paper discusses the concept of conformity and non-conformity through one of JackKerouac's greatest books "On The Road." It analyzes Kerouac's writings and relates it to the idea of conformity/non-conformity. It also discusses these ideas through the lifestyles of the beat generation which is embodied in the characters of the book.
From the Paper ?During the early post war era, the presumed conformity in middle-class white American literature where enormous, and it should come as no surprise that a reaction against that conformity-the beat generation-should arise and attain notoriety.? --Robert Holton(265-266) Jack Kerouac, a "self-proclaimed spokesman for the beat generation" (Miles 171), wrote a book that challenges the concept of conformity in a post war America. This book entitled "On The Road" takes its two main characters, Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty, in numerous journeys across America and to Mexico as well. These journeys, that takes them back and forth from the east coast to the west coast, illustrate the rebellious notion that Kerouac has towards rigidity and responsibility: two concepts that has embodied the idea of conformity. Through this, Kerouac is conveying the idea that living life to its fullest means the destruction of barriers to personal freedom. As Sal and Dean aptly demonstrates, life can indeed be lived to its fullest. They disregarded conformity to lead their own lives with their own rules. In many ways, they are the representations of the beat generation: they are Kerouac's tools to profess his belief in non-conformity."
Tags: beat, conformity, dean, drugs, drunkenness, jack, jose, kerouac, life, maldia, moriairty, non, road, sal
Abstract This paper explores JackKerouac'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."
Abstract This paper examines how in novels "On the Road" and "Saint Maybe", by JackKerouac and Anne Tyler, the authors stress upon life as a set of experiences and how these build a person. It shows how JackKerouac's characters go flying off randomly along the twisted contours of their lives in his autobiographical epic "On the Road". In contrast, it also looks at how Anne Tyler in her novel, "Saint Maybe" shows "ordinary" people and their ordinary lives. She displays the fact that people in this world are only human and are hence bound to make mistakes, yet they struggle to survive with the attempt to work out the problems they face in relationships and communication.
From the Paper "The journey of the seventeen-year-old protagonist, Ian Bedloe, begins when he doesn't imagine the consequences of his actions. He suspects there is more to Lucy's past and to the problems of her present, than either Danny or the rest of the family has acknowledged. And one night, when Ian's plans for a romantic evening with his girlfriend-indeed, it is the night he plans to lose his virginity-are disrupted by having to baby-sit Lucy's children longer than he was supposed to, Ian becomes enraged. And so, on the way home, Ian tells his brother what he suspects about Lucy, and also mentions that the daughter, for whom Danny abandoned his studies to marry Lucy, is not his child. In disbelief and horror, Danny commits suicide by driving his car into a wall."
This paper discusses JackKerouac's "On the Road", Allen Ginsberg's "Howl", and William Burroughs's "Naked Lunch" as examples of the literary, 1950s Beat Generation.
Abstract This paper explains that JackKerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and William Burroughs were the galvanizing forces behind the Beat Generation; their writings and revolutionary narrative techniques created a national sensation that is still debated in modern literary circles. The author points out that Kerouac's ?On the Road ?, the most respected work of the group, at first glance seems incoherent; but, as the novel progresses, we discover the story moves from a superficial sense of order to a deeper, more penetrating sense of openness. The paper relates that "Howl" is not the work of an angry young man; Ginsberg emerges from this rather long poem as a rancorous and somewhat gloomy mystic seer as opposed to a deferential and conventional kind of person that had symbolized the youth of the post-WWII period.
From the Paper "The sex that is virtually dominant in the world of "Naked Lunch" appears to reflect the sex that Freud revealed as the ultimate cause, means, and end. Anything goes in Interzone, and the sex is there in all varieties and expressions. However, it is "junk" which sufficiently separates the narrator from the group consciousness to let him have this vision of things as they are. Junk has its literal importance as a stimulus, but it is also important as a symbol. In general, it is a symbol of meaninglessness, or life as the be-all and end-all of an evolving world. Only be coming into ultimate contact with junk, by knowing it as a symbol, one can realize the separate life."
Abstract This paper introduces the beginning of the Beat Generation and how it was influenced by the author JackKerouac as shown in his story: "The Good Blonde".
From the paper:
"Expression of this need for individualism despite a conformity in society, expressed itself in the Beats with free association and jazz inspired language and improvisational literary techniques, in experimentation in drugs, sex, anything that would break free of the good soldier mold."
Tags: Ginsburg, free-, style, norm, jazz, narcotics, hitchhiking, free, love
