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Jack Kerouac

            World War II marked a wide dividing line between the old and the new in American society and the nation's literature"(The World Book Encyclopedia 427) . When world War II ended there was a pent up desire that had been postponed due to the war. Post war America brought about a time when it seemed that every young man was doing the same thing, getting a job, settling down and starting a family. America was becoming a nation of consumers. One group that was against conforming to this dull American lifestyle was referred to as "Beatniks". "The Beats or Beatniks condemned middle class American life as morally bankrupt. They praised individualism as the highest human goal"(The World Book Encyclopedia 428). This perspective was present in poetry and literature through out the beat movement. One of the most important works produced during the beat movement was Jack Kerouac's On The Road. In the novel Jack Kerouac's alter ego Sal Paradise represents the American man who realizes he doesn't want to conform to societies pressures but still hasn't realized what it is exactly he wants to do. He is a man who has very little direction and is very much lost in the world as he knows it. Kerouac seems to be constantly trying to escape. In examining the novel one might wonder what is Kerouac escaping and by what means does he do so? Kerouac used two means of escape through out the novel and through out his life. His first means of escape was his constant travel. He traveled from east to west, New York to San Francisco and stopped everywhere in between. He made this trip over and over, constantly on the road. The simple title of the novel exemplifies Kerouac's ongoing need to travel. When he and his friends got tried of traveling east to west they traveled north to south, driving all the way down to Mexico City. His travels gave him the opportunity to be an outsider with no worries. He was able to witness and observe all that there was to offer throughout the country.


Essays Related to Jack Kerouac

1. One the Road by Jack Kerouac

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. ... 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." ... The writing style of Jack Kerouac also emphasizes the spontaneity of living the moment. ... Jack Kerouac's writing style in the novel seems t...

  • Word Count: 1776
  • Approx Pages: 7
  • Has Bibliography

2. "Jack Kerouac"

(Jack Kerouac: Dharma). ... (Lit Kicks: Jack Kerouac). ... Jack Kerouac's On the Road was the start of a new culture of children embracing. .Jack Kerouac was a man of many achievements. ... "Jack Kerouac: Dharma." ... Nov 7, 2002. http://www.liglobal.com/beat/kerouac "Jack Kerouac." ...

  • Word Count: 1445
  • Approx Pages: 6
  • Grade Level: High School

3. On The Road

On the Road, written by an ingenious free-spirit of the 50's and 60's, Jack Kerouac. In the time of the 50's and 60's when the average American was drinking Coca Cola, enjoying TV dinners, and watching I love Lucy on their black and white television there was Jack Kerouac, behind the scenes. ... Kerouac was a writer from Massachusetts. ... In the book On the Road, Kerouac plays an unsettling, insightful traveler on his own personal endeavor to search for an answer. To what question only Kerouac knows. ...

  • Word Count: 506
  • Approx Pages: 2
  • Grade Level: High School

4. A Look at the Beat Generation

No other Beat poet understood that concept as well as Jack Kerouac. "Jack Kerouac single handedly created the beat generation. ... Kerouac was a Roman Catholic with a strong fascination with Buddhism and other Eastern philosophies. ... Kerouac was particularly interested in mastering the four noble truths. ... Since only two lines address life("Got up and dressed up, and went out & got laid"), it is clear that Kerouac's emphasis is on the hereafter. ...

  • Word Count: 1025
  • Approx Pages: 4
  • Grade Level: High School

5. On The Road

Kerouac has a distinctive style, part severe simplicity, part hep-cat jargon, part baroque. (Adams 2)" Phoebe Lou Adams, a columnist for The Atlantic Monthly, stated this about Jack Kerouac's book On the Road. ... Kerouac uses this theme throughout the book but not just for Dean or Sal. For character's Sal meets in his journey to find himself, Kerouac uses the same theme. ... Kerouac is very consistent in his writing. ...

  • Word Count: 606
  • Approx Pages: 2
  • Grade Level: High School

6. A Reflection of Sur

Pomeray forces Jack to see this horrible play that his wife has been involved with, Jack hates it with a passion. ... Jack is still in a horrible frame of mind. ... That night is the worst of Jack's life. ... Jack Kerouac Jack Kerouac was born Jean-Louis Kerouac, a French-Canadian on March 12, 1922, in Lowell, Massachusetts. ... Besides my mother's influence, a few months back I had read an article about Jack Kerouac, it explained about his books, and how he was not the most mentally stable writer out there. ...

  • Word Count: 1449
  • Approx Pages: 6
  • Grade Level: High School

7. THE BOP BEAT

"Jazz writers," such as Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, upheld their poetic ideals to the techniques of jazz musicians, such as rhythm, improvisation, and call and response. ... Another derivation, pinpointed by Kerouac, comes from the word "beatitude," holy, state of ultimate bliss. ... Ginsberg is said "to be a gifted public reader and has read some of his poems to jazz accompaniment, as have Whalen and Kerouac" (Benets 3). ... Dean Moriarty, Neal Cassady's persona in Jack Kerouac's On the Road, stresses that "we know what IT is and we know TIME and we know that everything is real...

  • Word Count: 2473
  • Approx Pages: 10

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