Beat Generation Issues - Essay Example

Beat Generation In April 1951 Jack Kerouac wrote “On the Road”. This autobiography is written as a tributary of consciousness as well as based on the impulsive road trips of Kerouac along with his friends across mid-century America. It is often thought of as an important work of the postwar Beat Generation that was motivated by jazz, poetry, and drug experiences. Jack Kerouac came up with the phrase “Beat generation” and he was well known both positively as well as negatively as a “beatnik” writer for the majority of his short but productive career. Response to “On the Road” has been fairly miscellaneous; the novel has been called the whole lot from disjointed nonsense to pure genius. The concluding edition was not published till six years after Kerouac wrote it in one extended paragraph in 1951. In 1957, the Beat poem “Howl” (by Kerouac’s friend Allen Ginsberg) had gained unsavory reputation; the newly published “On the Road “was proficient to ride the wave of attention in the Beats as well as make Kerouac an immediate celebrity Thesis statement “On the Road” represents the journey every human makes in some way at some point in their lives to find “IT”. Introduction “On the Road’s” cross-continental journeys are about Kerouac’s trips, mostly by car and bus and often accompanied by his friend Neal Cassady, the frenetic, charismatic, independent scholar from the West. Cassady’s name in the novel is Dean Moriarty. The novel begins with Dean and Sal Paradise (Kerouac) meeting in New York City and progresses through four mostly fast-paced trips, back and forth amid New York and California, up and down the Eastern Seaboard, along the Gulf Coast, and downs into Mexico, with notable stopovers in Denver and New Orleans, the latter to visit Old Bull Lee (William 3). The open road, poverty, drugs, alcohol, jazz, hunger, sex, speed, and characters met along the way create intense situations that allow the travelers to observe, react, and consider while becoming more familiar with their own identities. The novel’s two principal characters are the narrator, Sal, and his companion and hero, Dean Moriarty thinly veiled versions of Kerouac and his friend Neal Cassady. The book unfolds as a loosely connected series of episodes that document the pair’s adventures during a drunken and drug-ridden odyssey through the United States. Along the way, they meet and befriend an unforgettable gallery of American types: jazz singers, drug addicts, hitchhikers, and drifters. Their journey culminates in a revealing and darkly humorous stay in Mexico (Challi p 10). Much of “On the Road” is barely disguised autobiography, a document attesting to the alienation felt by Kerouac, Cassady, and other members of the Beat group in Eisenhower’s America. This group, which also included the poets Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and Gary Snyder, and the novelist William Burroughs, sought to transcend the conformist values of the 1950’s through such diverse channels as sex, drugs, alcohol, Eastern mysticism, and the poetry of William Blake (William 2). Their works were meant to shock the middle-class establishment, by which these writers felt beaten down and disenfranchised. This is novel full of excitement and traveling a god example is the part in which Sal wandered back to Denver. A rich girlfriend gave him a hundred dollars and he rushed to San Francisco to find Dean. Though Dean had fathered another child by his second wife Camille, he was still obsessed with his first wife, Marylou. Furious, Camille ordered him to leave the house. Sal proposed that they go first to New York, then to Italy, using the money from his soon-to-be-published book. Dean agreed, but they decided to have “two days of kicks” in San Francisco first. They visited Dean’s naive follower Ed’s wife Galeta Dunkel; Ed had abandoned her again, and she and other women friends confronted Dean with his irresponsibility. Sal defended Dean, and after an all-night party they left for the east in a travel bureau car. Dean took over the wheel and drove at dangerous speeds to Denver. Sal and Dean quarreled in a restaurant, then made up and went on a two-day drinking binge. Dean stole several cars, but they escaped the police and zoomed east at 110 miles per hour in a new travel bureau Cadillac. By the time they reached Chicago’s jazz clubs, the Cadillac was wrecked. Sal and Dean took a bus to Detroit, and then another travel bureau car to New York. Five nights later, Dean met a girl named Inez at a party and proposed marriage. He got a job as a parking lot attendant, and the trip to Italy was canceled (Vopat 385). A good example of the search for IT is when Sal left Dean working in New York and headed for Mexico. Dean bought an old car and caught up with Sal in Denver. Dean, Sal, and a young man from Denver drove through Texas to Mexico. In Gregoria, a Mexican teenager sold them marijuana and led them to the town brothel, where they had a tremendous party with the blessings of the local police. Afterward, they continued south through the jungles and into Mexico City. They caroused until Sal got a bad case of dysentery. Suddenly Dean abandoned him, driving back to Inez with a Mexican divorce from Camille. The night he married Inez, he left her and took a bus bound for San Francisco and Camille. Analysis of theme “On the Road‘s” theme represents the journey which every person makes at least once in his life in order to find his” IT”,. Kerouac expresses the fears, hopes, vulnerabilities and desires of all humanity through his own search for IT, and develops this theme through exploring his own experiences and thoughts. The novel concludes with the poignant truth humans often try to ignore - that time and aging are inexorable and that the answers to life will most probably never be known to any of us while on earth. In Kerouac’s On the Road, all the protagonists go on a long, strenuous expedition for human identity. Their intend is to expose who they really are and exactly where they fit in as well as what the meaning of life is. They express this wish by talking, throughout the novel, of the exploration for “IT” here means human identity. This “IT” is an elusive thing; something that encompasses in it an entirely different meaning for each and every individual. It holds each and every one of the things humans crave for that is life answers, what is the meaning of the universe, contentment, enlightenment, self-fulfillment, beauty (as expressed by Kerouac). “On the Road” is the narrative of a frantic search for “IT”, in which the protagonists finally come to realize that “IT” is unattainable and time cannot be defied. The human search for “IT” is never-ending. Even when we know that the search is virtually impossible, that “IT” is unreachable, that our longing will never be satisfied, we go on looking. Some people search for “IT” through purchasing innumerable material items, some follow a religion, some turn to music, art and literature, and some frantically travel the world, longing to experience that something that will define and enlighten them. Throughout history, musicians, artists, writers, actors, scientists and other prominent individuals have been deeply absorbed with the human desire to locate “IT”. Many have concluded that without “IT”, life is empty and futile - some even going so far as to suggest that “IT” is non-existent and therefore life is meaningless (Holton 15). Throughout “On the Road”, the protagonist, Sal Paradise, and his friends, refuse to accept this notion, driven by the belief that “IT” does exist, and that they will somehow find it by journeying from place to place, by experiencing the effects of alcohol and drugs, by searching for some alternate way of living and perceiving life. In the beginning of “On the Road”, Sal Paradise is a young man, who has lived a comparatively sheltered life, marrying, divorcing and completing university. He is filled with the inherent human longing for self-fulfillment; that emptiness that haunts all of us in our day-to-day lives, and feels that he must search for some kind of life defining experience. He was waiting to see the face of God (Cassady 10). Then Sal meets Dean Moriarty(Neal Cassady), the Saint of freedom who values experience, movement, and the beauty of loose, easy readiness, and is in awe of his carefree life, seeing him almost as superhuman “he’s the best in the world" (Kerouac 192). This leads to Sals following Dean around the country for years, hoping to find “IT” but finding the task more and more difficult as he goes (Bowering 191). In the search for “IT”, the novel Sal left New York in the spring of 1947, planning to hitchhike to Denver and continue to San Francisco, where his friend Remi Boncoeur had promised to get him a job on a ship. Sal spent most of his money taking a bus to Chicago. From there, he hitchhiked to Denver and found Carlo, a poet and intellectual and a young drifter Dean. Dean was divorcing Marylou and planning to marry Camille, a girl he had just met; meanwhile, he was having relations with each in separate hotel rooms. Sal observed as Carlo’s and Dean’s intellectual pursuits dissolved into drunken parties in town and in the mountains. Depressed, he wired his aunt for money and took a bus to San Francisco. An example in the book that Sal wanted to find his IT badly is that he was drawn again into Dean’s orbit. Sal abandoned college and a steady girlfriend, to take another trip across the country after the usual three-day drunken farewell party in New York. Driving the southern route, Dean stole gas, conned policemen, and talked like a modern mystic all the way to New Orleans. There they visited Old Bull Lee, an iconoclast and drug addict from a rich family. They all took drugs and listened to Bull expound his wild social theories. Sal was the only person actually invited, so the group wore out its welcome quickly. There are moments during the journey that Sal Paradise, Dean Moriarty and their friends go back and forth, east and West, in which they think that they have found “IT”; however these moments soon fade and are revealed to be merely illusions. Many of these moments occur in jazz clubs, where the music seems to be expressing “IT”. Dean frantically dubs jazz musician after jazz musician as “God”, however when the music ends Sal and Dean are not left with self-fulfillment, life answers or meaning (Cassady 12). They have not seen the “face of God”. They are longing for “IT” just as much as ever. "Shearing began to play his chords; they rolled out of the piano in great, rich showers.’Go! Dean was sweating, “There he is! Thats him! God! Old God Shearing!” When he was gone Dean pointed to the empty piano seat. “Gods empty chair,” he said God was gone, it was the silence of his departure" (Kerouac 116). Other experiences which lead Sal to think that he is experiencing IT, include those in which he is affected by drugs, alcohol or sleep deprivation, or is experiencing intense emotions (often sparked by the actions and/or words of Dean) or overwhelming visual sights (e.g.; sunsets, Mexican cities, jungle, the night sky) or both. Always though, these moments are transitory, and Sal is left bewildered (Mortenson 50). In the search for IT he returns home. Dean abruptly left Sal and Marylou in San Francisco. They got a room on credit, but were unable to find work. Marylou deserted Sal; Dean found him starving and brought him to Camille’s house. He and Dean toured the local jazz clubs, and Dean found Marylou again, but the threesome quickly became disenchanted with one another. The longer Sal spends searching for IT, the more cynical and perplexed he becomes. "What are we all aching to do? What do we want?" (221). He begins to realize that Dean is not “angelic” but miserable and ragged and mad, and begins to wonder if IT is truly attainable. "People. [look] everywhere in the dark...for something to do, somebody to talk to" (Kerouac 222). Yet something still compels him to keep searching. It is rarely, if ever, that the human hope that there is meaning in life and complete happiness to be found is completely shattered, and in Sal Paradise it remains a strong driving force behind everything he does. After years of traveling from East to west and vice versa, Sal finally decides to visit Mexico perhaps IT lies in wait for him there. Mexico is the culmination of the years spent following Dean, being on the road, searching for “IT”. When they enter Mexico, Sal and Dean are filled of hope. "Weve finally got to heaven. It couldnt be cooler, it couldnt be grander, and it couldnt be anything!" (253). "Im so amazed by this" (253). Moments in which it seems “IT” has finally been reached follow, while the protagonists are drunk in whorehouses. "The bartender was talking and wiping glasses. And. the mambo roared over another louder speaker. It seemed the whole world was turned on" (263). As always, however, IT has not been found, and the illusion of IT is gone within a few minutes of leaving the whorehouse. "The haunting mambo followed us a few blocks. It was all over" (266). Another person in search of IT was dean who disappeared Soon after arriving in Mexico City, Sal falls victim to a fever. He wakes up after a few days of delirium, to realize that Dean has gone, leaving him in the care of his friend Stan. Finally, Sal realizes once and for all that Dean is no angel, no biblical prophet, and no hero. "I realized what a rat he was, but then I had to understand the impossible complexity of his life, how he had to leave me there, sick, to get on with his wives and woes" (276) , this sentence represents the fact that Dean was tired of his life ,and he needed to leave so that he could find his “IT”. He finally realizes that much of his search for “IT” has revolved around Dean "...making logics where there was nothing but inestimable sorrowful sweats" (277), and that he is not going to find “IT” by traveling around Mexico, to Italy (another of his desperate ideas), or indeed anywhere else in the world (French 56). Sal returns to New York with memories and experiences but no closer to finding “IT”. He finally admits to himself that he will probably never know the meaning of life, that time is inescapable and that the process of aging is inevitable. "Nobody knows whats going to happen to anybody besides the forlorn rags of growing old" (281). Dean Moriarty, once representative of freedom and the search for “IT”, has become a ragged, lonely, lost soul wandering aimlessly from East to West, wife to wife, hopelessly longing for “IT” like everybody else. In Part I, Chapter 11, while Paradise abandons his script in order to look for a job, because of this a shadow of disappointment can be seen on Remi Boncoeurs face; even though no words are spoken at this point, the look on poor Remis face is quite enough to form a rhetorical appeal (Weinreich 10). The look conveys the sentiments of the central characters of the book that trivialities such as everyday jobs should be cast aside in favor of following ones dream. For one, this is an appeal from character; Remi, crestfallen that Sal has turned his back on his dream, is a person who has no qualms about stealing couches, or food, or stripping a ghost ship of its valuables. In this way, his desire to live the moment is connected with his questionable morals a problem somewhat relieved when his general goodness is illustrated by having him try to organize an evening out in order to put his father at ease. When Remi wants something, he takes it, but hes a decent, big-hearted person overall almost childlike. It should be observed that he has the amorality of a little kid. Therefore, this appeal from character should be seen as a cry for living ones dream an almost naive way of thinking of things, seen from the childlike eyes of Remi Boncoeur. Second, this passage consists of an appeal to emotion. Remis facial expression intends to stimulate that part of Sal, and the reader, that would like to continually live on and for the moment, chasing dreams, and never for moments surrender to the mundane. Time and again, the characters shift across the blazing heartland of America, yearning for release, for wonder. They live in the thrall of today and now. Of course, there are exceptions, moments where the restless lusting encounters resistance. In Part I, Chapter 13, page 96 of the novel, at the time when he is living with Terry, there is a passage wherein Sal describes picking cotton, and he says "I thought I had found my lifes work". He and Terry and her boy live together, and Sal temporarily forgets his friends and his wanderlust. Despite the fact that this period must have been Short-lived, Sal transforms into a "man of the earth” and then he also goes back to his "simple life". Eventually, though, he tells Terry that he has to leave and is “On the Road “again (Swartz, 12). Conclusion There are many different themes in “On the Road”, but “On the Road” represents the journey every human makes in some way at some point in their lives to find “IT” is the strongest theme in this novel. By reading the title alone this theme is dominant, because Sal and Dean are constantly traveling from one place to another. Life is a journey that begins when you are born. Through this journey, we see and hear a lot of things that change the way we think regarding the people who influence us as well as the world around us. Jack Kerouacs On the Road is a great example of the theme. “On the Road” represents the journey every human makes in some way at some point in their lives to find “IT “. This novel is on the subject of two characters, Sal Paradise, a young writer, as well as Dean Moriarty, a wild youth who lives life to the fullest. Together they go all around America; their journeys include traveling all the way through the wilderness, small towns, jungles, and deserts. Work cited Bowering, George. "On The Road: & the Indians at the End," stony brook, Nos. 3/4; 1969 p191. Cassady Carolyn. Off the Road: My Years with Cassady, Kerouac, and Ginsberg. New York: William Morrow publishing press, 1990 p 10-12 Challis, Chris. Quest for Kerouac. London: Faber & Faber publishers, 1984 p 10. French, Warren. Jack Kerouac: Novelist of the Beat Generation. Boston: Twayne publishers, 1986 p 56. Goldstein, N.W., "Kerouacs On the Road." Explicator 50.1. 1991 p 2. Holton, Robert. "On the Road: Kerouacs Ragged American Journey". Boston: Twayne publishers, 1999. p 15. Kerouac Jack; On the Road; penguin (Non-Classics); Reprint edition 1976 p216- 277. Mortenson, Erik R., "Beating Time: Configurations of Temporality in Jack Kerouacs On the Road". College Literature 28.3. 2001 p 5. Swartz, Omar. "The View From On the Road: The Rhetorical Vision of Jack Kerouac". Carbondale, Ill: Southern Illinois University Press. 1999 p 12. Vopat, Carole Gottlieb. "Jack Kerouacs on the road: A Re-Evaluation," Midwest quarterly, 14 1973 p385. Weinreich, Regina. "The Spontaneous Prose of Jack Kerouac". Carbondale, Ill: Southern Illinois University press. 1987 p 10 William S. Burroughs; on the road: Jack Kerouac Conference, workshop, The Washington Tribune, v. 5, no. 24, 1982 p 2-3 Read More