Jack Kerouac's "On the Road," is a transcendental novel which has influenced modern western civilization in a variety of ways; inspiring untold numbers of youth to adventure, exploration and mind expansion. It is a unique novel in the sense that it captured the essence of a generation and a movement and became representational of this "beat generation", as it came to be known. The beat generation had many influential contributors, but it can be argued that no other author, artist or individual's work better represented the philosophy of the "beats" than Jack Kerouac and his seminal work "On the Road." Kerouac is amongst the other authors from the beat generation sharing a similar life vision: "Those for whom the fog of war had lifted, and those who had rejected the suburbs, a steady job, and a two-car garage", explains Jay Atkinson" (12). Those authors wanted to explore the world, to experience life and also write about this actual experience. This essay aims to demonstrate that in the novel "On the Road," the act of writing is so intertwined with actual experience that writing in the novel is living; it will also demonstrate how Kerouac's trope of Americana is established in the novel and how it is related to the Beat philosophy. This will be demonstrated by illustrating how Jack's writing style reflects the spontaneity of life and thus the spontaneity of living. This will also be demonstrated by illustrating the main principles behind the beat generation philosophy and their own personal way to live life to the fullest. Also, some clear examples of typical American cultural items will be illustrated to highlight the authors' self-discovery as they discover their own country. .
In the novel, the act of writing is closely related to the act of living. Effectively, Jack, in the novel, writes a moment as if he was living it. The reader can easily imagine himself and live the moment as he reads the passage.
