One of the novels that has caused a great impact since it was written until now is the modern classic On the Road, the second novel of one of the most controversial writers of his time Jack Kerouac. The book is considered the first work of the Beat Generation, the name that was given to his small group of friends, that were also writers, of the Columbia University. There are many publishers that confirm the importance of On the RoadFor example, Synopsis tells us in its review: "This novel epitomized to the world the Beat philosophy" (amazon.com-#1). Also, Library Journal writes: "Undoubtedly one of the most influential and important novels of the 20th century, this is the book that launched the Beat Generation and remains the bible of that literary movement" (barnesandnoble.com-#1). The purpose of this research paper is to find out why this novel is so outstanding and has stayed for more than forty years in the attention of the public, to see to it, there will be an analysis of the story covering every necessary point.
The novel's main stages of the action are five and they are distributed in five chapters or parts throughout the story. Kerouac in On the Road tails his travels across America that took him seven years, he traveled by bus, hitchhiking and in his friends car. Furthermore, it tells us about many other things, like Synopsis point out: "It chronicles a spontaneous and wandering life style founded both on jazz and drug-induced vision" (amazon.com-#2). The first stage is about his first trip leaving New York to get to San Francisco to meet his friend Dean Moriarty. He starts hitchhiking for awhile, but he gets frustrated and decides to travel by bus to Chicago, later he arrives to Denver and finds some of his friends are there and realizes that they had deemed Dean as an outcast. After staying a couple of days in Denver, he leaves to San Francisco to live with his prep school friend and later he moves to Los Angeles, his last stop, and finally he returns to New York.
