eedom from life itself, especially from rational, adult life with its welter of consequences and obligations" (Vopat 304). Vopat also says, "Kerouac's characters take to the road not to find life, but to leave it all behind: emotion, maturity, change, decision, purpose, and, especially, in the best American tradition responsibility" (303). They feel any kind of knowledge will be a restraint. "They avoid anything- self-analysis, self awareness, thinking- that would threaten or challenge them, for with revelation comes responsibility for change, and above all they do not want change" (Vopat 303). Another more universal fear that they felt the need to escape was the red scare. "In 'the great McCarthy hysteria,' flight is the only means of expressing their dissent" (Feied 293). They also do not want the commitment of a real relationship with the opposite sex. "Free love is rather freedom from love and another route down that same dark death wish" (Vopat 303). They feel if they can escape these bindings of life than will achieve a better way of living. "Inwardly, these excesses are made to serve a spiritual purpose of an affirmation still unfocused, still to be defined, unsystematic" (Millstein 279). They want to just experience the joys of life to the fullest without worrying about any responsibilities. "They seek to make good their escape in moment to moment living, digging everything, pursuing kicks with a kind of desperate energy that passes for enthusiasm" (Feied 295). "They want for everyday experiences something that will give them an exalted, intensified sense of life- that will make them 'live,' that will make life 'real'; they want to transcend, not their actual limitations, but their sense of limitation" (Baro 281). The beats were looking for an easy way out of dealing with the pressures of having a real li...