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On The Road and the Beat GenerationThroughout the twentieth century, we have been witness to several movements which have helped to shape the face of American culture. From the beats, to the hippies and the punks of the seventies and eighties, these movements have modified the way we, as Americans, think and behave. "World War II marked a wide dividing line between the old and the new in American society and the nation's literature" (Zeleny 47). When the war was over the whole nation came to witness the times when nearly every young man was doing things in a similar pattern that included getting a job, starting a family, etc. The American nation was gradually turning into a nation of consumers whose outlook did not reach out too far beyond the scope of their every day routine. This type of life style found it's fierce opponents in society who initiated the notorious Beat movement. By using various literary techniques, along with non-conformist lifestyles as a basis for their writing, the beats were able to stir things up and shock society. They stormed and looted the impenetrable stronghold of serious literature. The beat generation opened up the eyes of the world to the unconventional, and by doing so, made its mark as the most significant literary movement of this century. "Likewise, the Beat Generation not only rejected the established order, but in turning to a more distant past, sought values that were radical and primitive" (Hart 5). This perspective was present in poetry and literature through out the beat movement. Beat was originally used to describe Kerouac's close network of friends, consisting mainly of artists, writers, and criminals. Only later did it represent an entire movement. "Kerouac felt the word beat represented the notion that he, along with his friends, were beaten down by the government, beaten down by the police, beaten down by any and all controlling institutions, and for a while, beaten down from the literary world. Kerouac, Ginsberg, and Burroughs all sustained the desire to keep the beat, to celebrate the true
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spirit of the lower class, which to them, happens to be the real beat generation" (Charters 6).The beats wrote literature and poetry, it was here where they began to experiment with new writing styles, and new ways of living life. These new experimental methods pressed the notion of freedom to a new limit while, breaking societies hold on what freedom is suppose to mean. The beats engaged in escapades that included crime, hedonistic parties, and mind-altering drugs. It was the perfect combination of non-conformist desires to live life to its fullest, along with brilliance in writing that made the writers of the beat generation eye-catching to the public. Everywhere they went they rejoiced in the splendor of life nature, writing, art, and experience.The two artists who might pretend to be counted as symbols of the Beat era are Kerouac and Burroughs. Although the two were prominent and defining members of the beat movement, they oddly enough did not have much in common. "His style like his message represents an outcry for individuality. Just as he rejects the contemporary emphasis on set formulas to explain life, so does he reject the restraints and conventions of the literary and intellectual world…"(Jones 5-). It was during his life experiences, whether it was binge drinking, wild sex, or lunacy on the road, where he attempted to quench his desire to find himself, and in the process hoped to eradicate his personal loneliness."Written in Kerouac's unique emotion-driven writing, On the Road portrays the mind-set of the beat era and brings to life the adventures of the most realistic beat of all, Jack Kerouac. The book stirs the soul with its constant poetic flow and can be related to, by anyone" (Cassady 78). Like most of Kerouac's writings, On the Road is based on the adventures he had, continually roaming about the United States in the late 140's. Overall, On the Road is a fresh and captivating novel, which follows the life of Sal Paradise. His journeys become a quest for new experiences and a new way of living, crossing both moral and legal boundaries in search for true freedom. Kerouac uses many techniques to attempt to convey the theme of personal freedom as well as to achieve freedom of expression. He applies an original, spontaneous style of writing to his novels, which helps him to convey his themes. His brilliant use of imagery and his vibrant characterizations also allows him to easily express his feelings and ideas in a way that could not have been achieved otherwise. Kerouac is the narrator in the novel and disguises himself under the alias of Sal Paradise. The characters he encounters, the situations in which he is involved, the scenery he passes are all described with incredible clarity, sharpness and plausibility. Riding with farmhands, hitchhiking with "Eddie", and partying in Wyoming are just a few of the high points that lead Sal to Denver, where he hopes to catch up with his old friend Dean Moriarty. As the novel moves into part two, the novel becomes something of a grab bag. Kerouac continually tries to describe the scenery in the various states he and Dean pass through in Dean's car. Often, he does a wonderful job. His intricate descriptions of the places where they stopped to eat and get gas, the hitchhikers they pick up, and the run ins with the police all seem credible. But, there is a noticeable drop in the amount of action, and this causes quite a letdown from the once great energy that was poured out in part one. However, while the details may seem plausible at some points, there are many times when Kerouac, instead of giving glib, vivid portrayals, seems to be rushing through the scenes,such as the section where Dean and Sal stay with the female coal truck driver, Frankie, and her poetic thirteen year old daughter. At other points, Kerouac becomes a rambling and emotional fool. There are other times, when he allows himself to begin speaking in spiritualist mumbo jumbo as when he is attempting to describe an out of body experience while going mad with hunger. I don't believe there has ever been any other writer in this century that loved America; the green and golden rolling hills, the copiousness, the enthusiasm, the sheer idea of America, more than Jack Kerouac. This book is not for everyone, but this book is to be experienced by those who seek something other than the everyday life they are used to living. While this book doesn't provide all the answers to living, it does remind us that it is worth going out and looking for those answers; the search is as important as whatever truth we eventually find. Kerouac creates a rushing, boundless novel whose energy is inspiring and infectious. After reading this book I reflected upon my own experiences traveling across America, with its truck stop lunch meals, innocent cornfield countryside's and stories too good, only Jack Kerouac would be bold enough to write about. While most autobiographies are arrogant and pretentious, I felt that he escaped that mold, and gave America a look into the truth.Throughout the novel there is one clear tendency that is evident to the reader- Jack's nearly maniacal desire to flee, to escape something that seems to suffocate his spirits. To fulfill his desire to escape thus establishing an ultimate authority of personal freedom, Jack uses any means that he sees fit, and the means he chooses are not necessarily good. Trying to escape from reality, Kerouac chose to mentally alter his perception of the world through constant drinking and drugs. To Kerouac, his life looked fairly good as long as he was under the influence of alcohol. "He was beginning to drink heavily, and to drink whiskey and gin instead of just beer" (Nicosia 6). Certainly, this was not the best way to handle his inner struggle for freedom. Keroauc's desire to rise above the mental slavery he felt inside was more important to him than anything else. One aspect of On the Road, which allows Kerouac to express the theme of personal freedom, is the use of spontaneous method of writing. This method creates a free flowing rhythm and structure, which emphasizes the theme of personal freedom due to its loose style and ability to capture the true feelings of the author as he writes. Kerouac used this original style in order to subconsciously express the thoughts of the mind in a continually flowing way without the constraints of the traditional rules of writing. Text written in this original way effectively conveys the emotion and energy of the author as well as allowing the reader to empathize greatly with the story. On the Road is written entirely using the "spontaneous prose" technique. An example of this is the final paragraph in the novel. It contains only one long sentence separated by many commas and conveys the natural spontaneous thoughts of the main character, Sal Paradise, as he thinks of his old friend, Dean Moriarty"So in America when the sun goes down and I sit on the old-broken down river pier watching the long, long skies over new New Jersey and sense all that raw land that rolls in one bulge over to the West Coast, and all that road going...all the people dreaming in the immensity of it...and tonight the stars'll be out, and don't you know that God is Pooh Bear? The evening star must be drooping and shedding her sparkler dims over the prairie, which is just before the coming of complete night that blesses the earth, darkens the rivers, cups the peaks and folds the final shore in, and nobody, nobody knows what's going to happen to anybody beside the forlorn rags of growing old, I think of Dean Moriarty..." (Kerouac 07). This extract effectively conveys the sincerity of the characters feelings and shows how well Jack Kerouac's technique can portray free, spontaneous thought. For Kerouac, it seems as though jazz is the ideal model for complete spontaneity. Kerouac uses the term "blowing" instead of playing in his analogy of writing and jazz and the distinction is an important one. "Playing" is a more involved thought process whereas "blowing" implies a more direct, more emotional style of play. "Kerouac was the first writer I ever met who heard his own writing, who listened to his own sentences as if they were musical, rhythmical constructions, and who could follow the sequence of sentences that make up paragraph as if he were listening to a little jazz riff…." (Ginsberg 151-60).This shows us how Kerouac uses language to parallel the playing of a Jazz musician. He also skillfully uses rhythm to portray the intensity of the performance and the citation shows how he was interested in the flowing of words, often rejecting the general rules of writing in order to have complete freedom in his novels. It is because of this that Kerouac can sincerely portray personal freedom and he has achieved the freedom of expression that he could not have achieved by writing in any other way.Another aspect of Kerouac's style, which allows him to express the theme of personal freedom, is his use of imagery to create a detailed portrayal of every situation. The main contributor to this imagery is Kerouac's extensive, though necessary, detailed description, which brings every situation to life and effectively conveys the feelings of Sal Paradise throughout the novel. Kerouac's brilliant descriptive ability is shown when the main character makes a trip to Mexico. He describes how exposed Sal Paradise is to his new surrounding world and deeply portrays Sal's feelings of this new experience"Lying on the top of the car with my face to the black sky was like lying in a closed trunk on a summer night. For the first time in my life the weather was not something that touched me, caressed me, froze me or sweated me but became me" (Spencer 68). This kind of description is showcased in many places throughout the book to let the reader know exactly how Sal is feeling through everything that is happening to him. Kerouac's stunning use of description to give the story an uncanny sense of realism, plays a major role in making the story what it is and allows him to more easily and effectively express his themes and ideas to the reader. Kerouac's remarkable use of description is again demonstrated when Sal is hitchhiking near the river Susquehanna. "We walked seven miles along the mournful Susquehanna. It is a terrifying river. It has bushy cliffs on both sides that lean like ghosts over the unknown waters. Inky nights cover all. Sometime from the rail yards across the river rises a great red locomotive flare that illuminates the horrid cliffs" (Spencer 7).This excerpt uses unusual word choice to describe the surroundings through the eyes of the main character and in turn portrays how the character feels. Kerouac describes how the cliffs "lean like ghosts" which emphasize how "terrifying" the river appeared to Sal Paradise. Jack Kerouac uses Sal's perceptions of the country to show how he is feeling at a certain point. During his travels, he is quite miserable knowing that he has many miles to travel and says how much he wanted to get home. Kerouac often uses nature to express the feelings of his characters and he portrays the theme of personal freedom through this relationship between nature and freedom.Another interesting aspect of "On the Road" is characterization. This ismainly because all of the characters in the novel are based on Kerouac's real life friends and their own real life experiences. Sal, for example, is Kerouac's alter ego, which explains how the story is told from such a realistic, first hand point of view. Since Kerouac was able to know all of his characters so well, he was therefore able to write beautiful, descriptive characterizations and let the readers know all of the characters like he knew his friends. The rich characterization, due to its basis on real life people gives the story a friendly and familiar feeling which contributes to the novels overall eminence. The realistic portrayal of characters allows Kerouac to express his themes more effectively, using his characters as a medium to do so. Dean Moriarty, for example, represents the rawness of America and is perhaps the most important character in the novel. Kerouac wanted Dean to represent people's cravings for new experiences and he wanted Dean to be the embodiment of the old wild west. Dean's importance is hinted at in the very first chapter of the novel. He is the first character who is introduced and is portrayed by the main character as being full of life. "He was simply a youth tremendously excited with life, and though he was a conman, he was only conning because he wanted so much to live and get involved with people who would otherwise pay no intention to him" (Kerouac 4). This citation effectively portrays the kind of attitude Dean Moriarty had towards life and also introduces the innocence of Dean. The extract is also an indication to what may happen to him later on in the novel and hints at the chaotic and anarchic life that he leads. Dean is the catalyst for Sal's cravings, which shows the importance and the magnetism that he possesses. Kerouac also uses Dean Moriarty to express the idea that, although it is important to try anything to find personal freedom, one must mature and settle down in order to find true freedom. This idea is portrayed as the novel progresses. Every one in the book gets tired of Dean at one point or another and even Sal has to realize that he cannot depend on Dean to stick with him when he's sick and miserable in Mexico. The joyrides get progressively less joyful which suggests that people cannot ride on forever, going from one adventure to the next.In my honest opinion, On the Road can be truly considered to be an ingenious novel, which successfully conveys Jack Kerouac's concept of freedom to the reader. His original style of writing helps him to effectively portray his ideas of personal freedom in a more sincere way than if the novel had followed the standard rules of writing. The techniques employed by Kerouac allows the reader to empathize greatly with the novel. One might argue whether or not Kerouac's perception of the world was reasonable in terms of his deeds. One can hardly claim that Kerouac's way of living should be accepted as normal for those who have a hard time trying to adjust to social conventions and everyday routine. However, On The Road gives the reader a valuable perspective on the alternative way of perception in life, which cannot and should not be neglected.Wouldnt you like to get away?Give yourself up to the allure ofCatcher In The RyeThe futures swathed in Stars and StripesWouldnt you like to get away?Kerouacs beckoning with open arms,And open roads of eucalyptusWestward bound (Belle and Sebastian )
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