Jack Kerouac and the beat movement
"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
Off The Road: My Years With Cassady, Kerouac and Ginsberg. He was able to witness and observe all that there was to offer throughout the country. Jack's first wife, Frankie Edith Parker, ended the marriage because of jack's relentless adultery. Kerouac's next marriage was to Joan Haverty Kerouac, who eventually ended the marriage saying they "had made a commitment to the marriage but not to each other"(Charters 357). Kerouac needed to see the way the rest of America was in an effort to find what he was. In an attempt to ease his guilt Jack would denounce homosexuality, saying that "gay sex is not in my line"(Nicosia 142). The fact that Jack couldn't commit himself to one woman at a time shows his insecurity and uncertainty towards his sexuality. Even if he was to make some sort of commitment to one of his many girls along the way, it wasn't unlike him to just pick up and leave. After all the only thing people around seemed to know about him was that he liked to drink. Kerouac's poor ability to maintain relationships is evident through out his life as well as in On The Road. The simple title of the novel exemplifies Kerouac's ongoing need to travel. While journeying across the states, staying in small towns for no more than a few nights, Kerouac was able to obtain a life with no commitment or responsibility. San Francisco: Straight Arrow Books, 1973.
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Acceptance Essays
